bit pggl ns APS ate ieee 


hasan. 


DRAWING FROM MEMORY. 


THE CAVE METHOD 


FOR 


LEARNING TO DRAW FROM MEMORY. 


BY 


MADAME MARIE ELISABETH CAVE. 


TRANSLATED FROM THE FOURTH PARIS EDITION, REVISED CORRECTED, Afp 
s 
- ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR. 


To See, to Understand, to Remember, is to Know.—RvuseEns. 


NEW! YORE 
Soe Sul NAM'S :SONS 


182 FirrH AVENUE 


1877 


650 
OE 
ZT, 


Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by 
G. P. PUTNAM & SON, 


In the Olerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 


EDITOR’S NOTE. 


THE Revue pes Deux Monpss has published 
an article by M. Eugéne Delacroix, the illustrious 
painter, upon Drawine witHout A Master, by 
Madame Marie Elisabeth Cavé. We cannot do 
better than republish it here in order to call public 


attention to her work. 


Drawing without a Master, by Madame Elisabeth Cavé.* 


Tuis is the only method of drawing which really 
teaches anything. In publishing as an essay the remark- 
able treatise in which she unfolds with surpassing 
interest the result of her observations upon the teaching 
of drawing and the ingenious methods she applies, Ma- 
dame Cave, with whose charming pictures every one is 
familiar, not only proves that she has carefully studied 
the principles of the art she practises so well, but she 
also renders invaluable service to all who have marked 
out for themselves a career of art. She clearly shows 
the pernicious effects of the ordinary methods, and how 
uncertain are their results. She has indisputably the 
first claim to attention; she speaks of that with which 
she is well acquainted; and her piquant manner of pre- 
senting truth renders it only the more clear. I do not 
purpose in noticing her work to follow in the steps of 
those who, without thoroughly understanding the art of 
painting—without even having practised its elements, 
write upon it, and give officious advice to artists. 

The pupil who goes with his portfolio under his arm, 
to study at the Academy rarely reads writings of this 
sort; and the finished painter who has taken his bent 
and chosen his path, has neither the leisure nor the 
power to recreate or modify himself after their systems ; 
moreover, these works generally treat less of practice 
than of theory. The real evil is the incompetent teacher, 
the unskilful usher of that sanctuary which he himself 
will never penetrate; the poor painter who pretends to 
teach and explain what he has never been able to put in 


* From REVUE DES Deux MONDEs. 


6 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


practice, the method of making a good picture. The 
treatise of Madame Cavé is a timely interposition 
between these sorry professors and their victims. We 
must charge to the account of their fatal doctrines, or 
rather to the absence of all doctrine in their mode of 
instruction, the few attractions we have all found at the 
beginning of the career. Who does not remember the 
pages of noses, ears and eyes which afflicted our child- 
hood ? Those eyes, methodically divided into three 
perfectly equal parts—the central one occupied by the 
eyeball, which was represented by a circle; that inevita- 
ble oval the point of departure for drawing the head, 
which is neither oval nor round, as every one knows ; in 
short, all those parts of the human body, copied endlessly 
and always separately, and requiring in the end a new 
Prometheus to construct therefrom a perfect man. Such 
are the notions beginners receive, and which are through 
life a source of error and confusion. 

Can we wonder at the general aversion toward the 
study of drawing ? Madame Cavé, however, as she 
says in her preface, would have this study, like reading 
and writing, form one of the elements of education; by 
suppressing all false methods, and rendering instruction, 
not only systematic but easy, she would cause a most 
happy revolution; she would guide unerringly, the 
first steps of the artist in the long career before him; 
and open to persons of leisure, to mere amateurs, a source 
of enjoyment equally lively and varied. Painting, which 
imparts such deep pleasure to the connoisseur capable of 
appreciating the delicacies of this beautiful art, confers 
still higher good upon those who themselves wield the 
crayon or the brush, whatever may be the grade of their 
talent. Without aspiring to composition, one may find 
real delight in imitating all that nature presents. Copy- 
ing fine pictures is also a real amusement, which makes 
study a pleasure; the memory of beautiful works is 
thus preserved by means of labor unaccompanied by that 


NOTICE FROM REVUE DES DEUX MONDES, | 


fatigue and anxiety which the inventor experiences. 
The trouble and the toil are truly his. 

The poet Gray used to say that he desired nothing 
more for his portion in Paradise, than the privilege of 
reading at his leisure, stretched upon a sofa, his favorite 
romances; such is the enjoyment of copying. It has 
been the pastime of the greatest masters, and is an 
achievement as easy for talent which aims higher, as for 
the amateur who is not ambitious of overcoming the ut- 
most difficulties. 

Among the ancients, the knowledge of drawing was 
as familiar as that of letters; and how can we suppose it 
was not like the latter, an element of their education ? 
The wonders of invention and science which shine not 
only in the relics of their sculpture, but in their utensils, 
their furniture, in every article they used, attest that 
their acquaintance with drawing was as extended as that 
with writing. There was more poetry with them, in the 
handle of a saucepan, or in the simplest pitcher, than in 
the ornaments of our palaces. 

What critics those Greeks must have been! What 
tribunal for an artist can be equal to a whole nation of 
connoisseurs? [t has been repeated to satiety, that the 
habit of seeing the nude figure familiarized them with 
the beautiful, and made them quick to discern faults in 
painting and sculpture. It is, however, a great error to 
suppose that nudity was as common as many imagine, 
among the ancients; our familiarity with statuary has 
fostered this prejudice. The paintings which have been 
handed down to us from the ancients exhibit them in 
ordinary life, dressed in every variety of style, wearing 
hats, shoes, and even gloves, The Roman soldiers wore 
pantaloons; the Scotch in this respect come nearer 
simple nature. Rich people, who affected oriental man- 
ners and costumes were weighed down, as we see the 
rajahs of India, with ornamental attire, to say nothing 
of the necklaces, the gilded clasps and varied coiffares 


8 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


Even if we suppose that the public games and gymnas- 
tics in which they habitually indulged made them more 
familiar than we are in modern times, with the body in 
motion and entirely nude, is that a sufficient reason for 
attributing to them a thorough acquaintance with drawing? 

With us the face is always uncovered—is the sight 
of such a multitude of countenances productive of many 
connoisseurs in protraiture ? Nature spreads her land- 
scapes lavishly before our eyes, yet great landscape 
painters are none the more common. 

‘“ Learn to draw,” says the author of ‘ Le Dessin sans 
Maitre’ “and you will have your idea at the end of your 
pencil as the writer has his at the tip of his pen,” learn to 
draw and you will carry with you in returning from tra- 
vel, souvenirs far more interesting than would be the 
journal in which you should endeavor to record every 
day, your emotions in each locality, before each object. 
That simple pencil sketch beneath your eyes, recalls with 
the scene there portrayed, all the associations connected 
with it—what you were doing before or after—what your 
friends around you were saying—and a thousand deli- 
cious impressions of sun, air, and the landscape itself 
which the pencil cannot translate. More than that, it 
enables the friend who could not follow you in your 
journeyings, to enter, as it were, into your emotions, 
and where is the description, either written or oral, which 
has ever conveyed a complete idea of the object de- 
scribed ? I appeal to all who, like myself, have lingered 
in delight over the romances of Walter Scott, and I 
select him because he excels in the art of word painting ; 
is there a single one of those pictures so minutely detail- 
ed, of which it is possible to have a perfect conception ? 
It would be amusing to take one of his descriptions and 
propose to a dozen skilful painters to reproduce upon 
canvas the objects described by this enchanting writer. 
I have not the least doubt there would be entire dis 
agreement in the results, 


NOTICE FROM REVUE DES DEUX MONDES. 9 


I have heard one of the most illustrious writers of our 
time say that, during a very interesting tour in Germany, 
he made repeated efforts to transfer upon paper, with 
letters and words,—those usually docile instruments of 
his thought—the aspect, the color, and even the poetry 
of the scenery, with its mountains and rivers, through 
which he passed, and he fully confessed he was quickly 
out of conceit with so dry a task; better fitted, in my 
mind, to weaken reminiscences than to strengthen them. 

But how shall we learn to draw? The course of 
study requisite for the lowest degree in College lasts ten 
years ; ten years, passed under the ferule and upon the 
bench, scarcely give to ordinary students the general 
knowledge of the ancient writers. Where shall time 
be found for the long apprenticeship in which the great 
masters spent their entire lives, and that in the absence 
of all method? For there really is none in the study 
of drawing. ‘The student finds neither in the books nor 
even in the instructions of a master, anything analogous 
to rudiments and syntax. The best master, and this 
will be the one who shall lay aside all those useless prac- 
tices which mere routine makes habitual—such a master 
can do no more than place a model before his pupil tell- 
ing him to copy it as well as he can. 

A knowledge of nature resulting from long expe- 
rience, gives to the finished painter a certain skill in 
the process employed to reproduce what is seen ; but, 
instinct still remains to him a surer guide than reason. 

This is why the great masters never stopped to give 
precepts upon the art they practised so well; the in- 
spiration of their favorite duty was, undoubtedly, the 
best of all counsellors to them almost without exception ; 
they have disdained leaving the least written instruction 
or traditions of practical method. Albert Direr has 
treated only of proportions—mathematical measurements 
taken from an arbitrary base—but that is not drawing. 

Leonardo da Vinci, on the contrary, in his “ Treatise 

1* : 


10 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


on Painting,” pleads routine almost exclusively; a new 
argument in support of our assertions. This universal 
genius—this great geometrician has made his book only 
a collection of recipes. 

There has been no lack of systematic minds, and here 
Ido not refer to common drawing-teachers, who have 
rebelled against the impotence of science. 

Some have drawn by circles, others by squares; 
they have improvised most extraordinary methods ; 
Madame Cave’s idea from its very simplicity has never 
occurred to one of them. “ Learning to draw ” she tells 
us, ‘is but training the eye correctly,”—it matters little 
what sort of a machine the professor may be if one’s 
chief study is the cultivation of the eye; reason, and 
even sentiment should come afterward. 

Drawing is not the reproduction of an object as it is 
—that is the sculptor’s task—but as it appears—and 
this is the work of the draughtsman and the painter; 
the latter completes by means of the gradation of tints 
what the other began with the proper disposition of 
lines; perspective, in a word, must be wot i the mind, 
but in the eye of the pupil. “You teach me nothing but 
truths,” I say to the master, with your exact proportions 
and your perspective by a plus 6, whereas in art all is 
illusion; what is long must appear short, what is curved 
should seem straight, and, reciprocally. What is painting 
in its literal signification ? 

The imitation of projections upon a plain surface. 
Before poetry can be expressed in painting, objects must 
be brought out from the back ground; and this achieve- 
ment wus the work of centuries. It began with the cold 
barren outline, and reached perfection in the marvellous 
creations of Rubens and Titian, in which the salient points 
as well as the simple outline, expressed each in proper 
degree, have concealed art by force of art. There is the 
ne plus ultra, there is the miracle, and this is the fruit 
of illusion. 


NOTICE FROM REVUE DES DEUX MONDES. }] 


Give, as Madame Cavé says, a piece of clay to a peas- 
ant, telling him to make a ball out of it; the result will 
be, with more or less success, a ball. Hand to that 
novice in sculpture, a sheet of paper and pencils, asking 
him to solve the same problem with instruments of 
another kind, drawing the object upon the paper and 
rounding it off by means of b/ack and white, you will 
find it difficult merely to make him understand what you 
require; it will be years before he can model even pass- 
ably by the aid of drawing. 

Madame Cavé’s sole aim is to cultivate the eve cor- 
rectly. Thanks to her method, which is simplicity itself, 
proportion, contour and grace, will come of themselves 
and appear on the paper or the canvas, By means of a 
tracing of the object to be represented upon transparent 
gauze, her pupil cannot help acquiring a knowledge of 
foreshortenings, that stumbling-block in all kinds of 
drawing. She accustoms the mind to all the absurdities 
and impossibilities it presents. By requiring the repeti- 
tion from memory of the outline, taken as it were the 
act, she gradually familiarizes the beginner with diffi- 
culties; this calls in science to the aid of growing ex- 
perience, and at the same time opens to the pupil the 
career of composition, which would be forever closed 
without the assistance of drawing from memory. 

Impelled by a similar idea many artists have resort- 
ed to photography as a means of correcting the errors of 
the eye, and I agree with them, notwithstanding the 
opinion of those who criticize the method of teaching by 
tracing through glass or gauze, that the study of the 
photograph if thoroughly pursued, may of itself take the 
place of instruction. Much experience is necessary, 
however, to derive any benefit therefrom. The photo- 
graph is superior to the tracing; it is the mirror of the 
object—certain details, usually overlooked in designs 
from nature, there assume characteristic importance, and 
thus introduce the artist into close acquaintance with 


13 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


construction; the lights and shades are there reproduced 
in their true character, that is, with their exact degree of 
firmness, or softness; a very nice distinction—without 
which there can be no projection. But we must not 
lose sight of the fact that the photograph is only a trans- 
lator whose office it is to initiate us beforehand in the 
mysteries of nature, for notwithstanding its wonderful 
truth in some respects, it is still only a reflection of the 
real, only a copy—false to a certain extent, from the very 
necessity of being exact. The monstrosities it presents 
are truly shocking, even though they may Jiterally be 
those of nature herself; but these imperfections which the 
machine reproduces with fidelity, do not offend our eyes 
when we look at the model without this medium; the eye 
unconsciously corrects the disagreeable exactness of rig- 
orous perspective; it performs the work of an intelli- 
gent artist; in painting it is mind speaking to mind, and 
not science to science. This remark of Madame Cavé is 
the old quarrel of the letter and the spirit; it is a eriti- 
cism upon those artists, who, instead of taking the pho- 
tograph as a counsellor, as a kind of dictionary, make it 
the picture itself. They imagitie they are following 
nature much more closely when, by dint of extreme care 
they have preserved in their painting the results at first 
obtained mechanically. They are bewildered by the 
hopeless perfection of certain effects seen upon the sur- 
face of metal. The more they attempt any resemblance, 
the more they discover their inability. Their work is, 
therefore, only a necessarily cold copy of a copy imper- 
fect in other respects. The artist, in a word, becomes a 
machine, drawn by another machine. 

Photography naturally leads me to speak of what 
Madame Cavé says of portraiture. There is not a more 
delicate art. A person who moves, who speaks, does 
not exhibit imperfections like a mute, motionless picture, 
We always examine a portrait too closely; we notice it 
more in one day than the original in ten years. <A por 


NOTICE FROM REVUE DES DEUX MONDES. 14 


trait initiates the beholder in details he had never before 
observed. For example, we often hear a person say 
when looking at a portrait, “It is a good likeness but 
the nose is too short.” Then turning to the original, he 
adds, “I never observed you had so short a nose, but 
you have a very short nose!”” These remarks clearly 
show the task of the portrait painter; and this task not- 
withstanding the received opinion which classes portrai- 
ture aS an inferior art, requires superior and entirely 
distinct faculties. 

We understand the skill of the portrait painter to 
consist in softening the imperfections of his model, at the 
same time preserving the resemblance, and Madame 
Cavé’s method of solving this difficulty is at once simple 
and ingenious. Certain outlines may be modified, em- 
bellished, so to speak, without destroying the peculiar 
features. Study the character of a head, try to discover 
what strikes us at first view. There are persons who 
possess this faculty naturally, and they take a likeness 
before they learn to draw. I call that a good likeness 
which pleases our friends, leaving no room for our 
enemies to say “It flatters!” And this is no easy 
achievement. How many good portrait painters are 
there, that is, painters who combine real talent with the 
art of producing a good likeness? Very few. Often a 
simple sketch is a better likeness than a portrait, because 
the latter is too minutely detailed. Do you know the 
color of all your friends’ eyes? Certainly not. It re- 
sults from the fact that we notice our immediate acquain- 
tances very slightly. Hence this question arises: Is it 
necessary that the portrait painter should show us more 
than we have been accustomed to observe? Hxamine the 
portraits painted from photographs,—not one in a hun- 
dred is endurable. Why is it so? Because it is not reg- 
ularity of feature which impresses and charms us, but 
the tout ensemble—the expression of the face—for every 
one has a physiognomy which strikes us at first sight and 


14 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


which a machine can never render. It is the spirit 
which must be understood and rendered in the person or 
object drawn. And this spirit has a thousand different 
faces; there are as many expressions as sentiments. It 
is a wonderful work of God, the forming of so many dif- 
ferent faces with a nose, a mouth and two eyes. For 
who of us has not a hundred faces? Will my portrait 
of this morning be that of this evening or to morrow ? 
Nothing repeats itself: each instant brings a new ex- 
pression. 

I shall not extend my remarks to all portions of this 
charming treatise, whose chief merit is, perhaps, its brevity. 

In these narrow limits, the author touches upon all 
points which can interest a pupil as well as an experienced 
painter: the art of choosing the point of view, of dis- 
posing the lights and shades, in short, all the instruction 
which can be given upon composition; the whole is 
presented in a few words; she does not forget, in that 
department of art which is the summary of all the 
others, to enjoin care in the selection of subjects. As 
she has the good taste and I may add, the extreme med- 
esty to address herself only to women, this caution is 
the more important; I might remark that not afew men 
would derive benefit from her suggestions; the mania 
for attempting subjects or styles out of the range of their 
capacity, has ruined many clever artists. The prejudice 
which measures talent by the dimensions of the work, 
should exist only among these who are no judges of 
painting. How artists who appreciate and admire as they 
deserve, the master-pieces of the Flemish and Dutch find 
something to envy when they themselves produce re- 
markable works of similar dimensions! There are no de- 
grees, says Madame Cavé, in the value of the objects 
sculptured or painted, the degree exists only in the talent 
of the artist wio executes. The crowning injunction which 
is the starting point of all instruction, is then the fol. 
lowing: Consult, first of all, the genius of your pupil 


NOTICE FROM REVUE DES DEUX MONDES. ]5 


“ At the present day,” she says again, “ artists are made 
in spite of Minerva: we say to the young man, ‘yon 
will be a painter, a sculptor,’ as we should say, ‘ you will 
be potter or a carpenter,’ without studying in the least 
his aptitude. We forget that genius alone can say to 
youth, ‘you will bean artist.’ Evidently, it was other- 
wise in ancient times.” 

“See that streamlet,” she says elswhere, “ which fol- 
lows lovingly, the channel nature has prepared for it, 
bearing freshness and plenty in its undulating course, 
enriching itself with little brooks which join it on the 
way, and finally reaching the sea, a majestic river; that 
is the emblem of talent and genius; nothing isan effort ; 
it follows its natural course. It is not thus with inferior 
natures, with them all is borrowed labor; like those 
canals, excavated by innumerable hands through the 
mountains, and which become dry, if the neighboring 
stream does not supply them: artificial tides without 
grace, without life.” 

One may see by these casual quotations, that my task 
is an easy one: these striking images so simply expressed 
which one meets here and there and in due moderation, 
are the accompaniment of her precepts and give an idea 
of the manner in which the subject is treated. It is dif- 
ficult to give a complete analysis of a theme so instruc- 
tive and so clearly presented; one can only repeat in an- 
other form the simple truths which the author places 
before her readers. In speaking to the young girls who 
are her pupils, and in so familiar a style, Madaine Cavé 
presents to artists of all classes, most interesting ideas to 
meditate upon and treasure up. 

I wish, further, to notice her lesson upon the advan- 
tage to be derived from studying the great masters. 
Her reflections upcn their different merits seem to me a 
brief solution of the grave question which has filled 
volumes and still appears unanswered. It is no less a 
theme than ‘ the beaut:ful,’—that beauty which some 


16 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


have made to consist in a straight line, others in the 
serpentine, and which the author of this treatise finds 
simply wherever there is anything to admire, Study 
the differences existing between these great talents (she 
has just enumerated the great masters of the different 
schools), Some are of the first rank, others of the 
second: but there is beauty in all; in all, material for 
instruction. What I specially enjoin is, not to be ex. 
clusive. Some painters are ruined by adopting only a 
certain style and condemning all others; all, however, 
should be studied impartially ; thus one preserves his ori- 
ginality, since he follows in the steps of no one master. 
The pupil of all, is the pupil of no one; and from the 
united lessons received, he creates his own wealth. 
While one master is absorbed in studying the minutest 
details of nature, another aims only at picturesque 
effects, grand contours. The latter have represented, 
in historical painting, memorable scenes from ancient 
life; the former have painted naturally and without 
effort, the most common place view just as it was pre- 
sented to them. Some have sought inspiration in the 
ideal, others in the real. Paul Veronese threw air and 
light every where with profusion; Rembrandt enveloped 
himself in a profound, mysterious light and shade. The 
former is delicate, the latter vigorous. Allare different 
but all natural. If the women of Rubens are unlike 
those of Titian and Raphaél, it is because the Dutch do 
not resemble the Italians. Kven more, in the same 
country, Titian, Raphaél, Paul Veronese, disagree re- 
garding form, for each painter has his style, his _pre- 
dilection ; each has painted his own ideal of woman, and 
he has not erred; he has painted the beautiful as he 
saw it. 

I will leave the reader under the impression of these 
clear and sensible thoughts. I have added no comment. 
They will serve as a conclusion, and may lead toa 
better understanding as to the respective qualities of the 


NOTICE FROM REVUE DES DEUX MONDES. li 


great masters, and above all as to the famous “ beautiful” 
which has caused such sleeplessness to so many great 


philosophers, while other rare men solved it without 
effort. 


EUGENE DELAOROIX. 
Revver pes Deux Monpss, Sepé. 15, 1850. 


P.S.—Do not confound le “ Dessin sans Maitre” with 
le “ Dessin appris seul,” which is not by the same author 


18 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER, 


DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


Wiru this method as simple as it is ingenious, parents 
and teachers, without knowing how to draw themselves, 
may teach children the art—now as indispensable as 
reading and writing. 

The report upon this work made to the Minister of 
the Interior by M. Felix Coitereau, Inspector-General of 
Fine Arts, which we publish here, and in consequence of 
which that minister has subscribed for a great number 
of copies, is the best eulogium we could offer upon this 
method which will soon be the only one in use in all the 
schools. 

We cannot be too urgent in recommending persons 
who wish to follow this method, to address for drawing 
models which may be relied on as those selected and 
approved by Madame Cavé, M. Philipon, Rue Bergere, 
20; also the office of ‘“L’Ane Savant” 69 Boulevard 
Saint Martin, which publishes the third part of the 
“ Dessin” and Coloring without a Master. 


(See close of the book for the nomenclature of articles 
necessary to this method.) 


Report of the Inspector-General of Fine Arts to the Minister 
of the Interior, upon Madame Cavé’s Method of Drawing. 


March 28, 1851. 


Inaccordance with your instructions I have examined 
the results of Madame Cavé’s method for teaching the 


REPORT. OF THE INSPECTOR OF FINE ARTS, ETC. 19 


art of drawing, which she has explained in her book 
entitled “ Drawing without a Master.” 

Tracing a drawing or some object in nature through 
a thin gauze, reproducing the image traced and ascer- 
taining by means of the proof if the reproduction is 
exact—this is the starting-point of this method which 
possesses the advantage of disciplining at once the hand 
and the eye of the pupil, even obliging her to discover 
and correct her own errors without the aid of a teacher. 
In Madame Cavé’s studio the proof is the instructor ; 
that is to say, is the truth. 

This first exercise is followed by drawing from mem- 
ory; the pupil is required to reproduce without the 
aid of the model, the drawing which she has previously 
traced and copied. These first lessons are addressed to 
children of from eight to twelve years, and I have estab- 
lished the following results : 

Ist. A remarkable correctness in the ensemble and 
contour of a figure or any other object : 

2d. A reproduction from memory scarcely distinguish- 
able from the copy: 

3d. Acquaintance with the masters; I have readily 
recognized Raphaél, Holbein, and others, in the drawings 
from memory of Madame Cavé’s pupils, and I thus 
conclude they have for themselves become familiar to a 
certain degree with the great masters : 

Ath. Finally, the idea of perspective; that is, that with- 
out having learned any of the rules of the science, 
pupils, in tracing from nature execute correctly the 
greatest difficulty in the art of perspective foreshortening, 

Thus, by exercising the memory of children, giving 
accuracy of vision and firmness of hand at the age when 
their organs, still tender, are docile) Madame Cavé 
renders them better qualified for the industrial profes- 
sions, makes them skilful instruments in all the trades 
which pertain to art. 

With the old methods one could not learn to draw 


20 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


before the age of twelve, a period which terminates the 
education of the working-classes, because the judgment 
is not developed. With the ingenious teaching of Madame 
Cavé, the child, learning almost unconsciously to observe 
and compare, forms his own judgment, at the same time 
acquiring that skill which is indispensable in every 
species of manual labor. 

Here, then, we have genuine improvement in the 
education of the children of the people. 

After designating the means of rendering the elements 
of drawing as common as the art of writing, Madame 
Cavé goes still further: young girls who have passed the 
age of twelve make rapid progress; in looking over their 
numerous essays I have seen shading added to outlines ; 
the eye of the pupil acquires such accuracy, she disposes 
her lights and shades so boldly, that her first design 
astonishes one ; it possesses qualities which ordinarily are 
the results only of long experience. It is the same with 
designs from nature. With this method, falsity is impos- 
sible, for the truth is ever before the pupil’s eye; if she 
wanders from it she is forced to return. Drawings from 
memory, then, assume greater importance. Many have 
been shown me representing entire pictures with the 
lights and shades. It is certain that the pupil who is 
successful in reproducing a picture from memory, with 
all its difficulties, understands it. The requisite effort 
of mind endows her to a certain degree with the science 
of the picture. 

To balance a composition, to distribute the lights, are 
two great secrets in the art of painting in which Madame 
Cavé’s method initiates one in the simplest manner. 
Her pupils have not yet attained so far, but the works of 
the professor clearly prove the value of her precepts. 

Accept, Sir, the tribute of my respect. 


FELIX OCOITEREAU, 


Historical Painter, Inspector-General of Fine Arts, 


PREFACE, 


ALL men are not poets or writers because they have 
passed ten years of their life in a college. Yet all, 
whatever may be their calling, derive benefit from their 
studies. All know how to hold a pen and to express 
their thoughts sufficiently. It is, as it were, the first 
step in the art of writing which the most ordinary minds 
attain. 

I am often asked why the art of representing objects 
with the pencil, as thoughts are reproduced by the pen, 
is not as common as the art of writing. It is certainly 
as necessary. We may safely assert there is no man of 
leisure who has not a thousand times regretted his igno- 
rance of drawing, either when he has wished a hou-e 
built, an article of furniture made, a garden laid out, or 
to preserve the remembrance of some locality, some noted 
edifice, or work of art. And.where is the industrial pro- 
fession which has no need of drawing? The joiner and 
the cabinet-maker, the carpenter and the builder, the 
florist, the embroiderer, the milliner, the mantua- 


2 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


maker, the manufacturer of shawls and cloths, the 
potter, the crockery-maker and a thousand others,—are 
only imperfectly acquainted with their occupation, if they 
are strangers to this art. It imparts taste, and enables 
them to select beautiful designs, impressing their works 
with that seal of elegance which renders them sought after. 

If we revert to ancient times, not only do we find 
monuments and works of art which strike us with admi- 
ration, but the vessels and commonest utensils are in 
the most exquisite style. 

Why are the artists and even the workmen of antiquity, 
so superior to our own? Why do we at the present day 
servilely copy the ancients, distorting their works in our 
vain attempts to equal them ? 

Because artists are now made in spite of Minerva. 
We say to the young man, “ You will be a painter, 
a sculptor,” as we should say, ‘“ You will be a potter, 
or a carpenter,” without studying his proclivities in the 
least. We forget that genius alone can say to youth, 
“ You will be an artist.” It was apparently otherwise in 
ancient times. 

As to the artisans, whose works have emerged to our 
great astonishment, from the soil of Pompeii, we do not 
know that they could read, or write, but they certainly 
knew how to draw, and much better than the majority of 


our artists. 


PREFACE. 25 


Evidently, the art of drawing was notin Rome as 
with us, an accomplishment. 

An accomplishment, a superfluous something, super- 
ficially acquired and quickly forgotten, is the name now 
bestowed upon the art of drawing, which, to the artisan, 
is at least as useful, as necessary, as the art of writing. 
Is it astonishing, that with this prejudice, our industrial 
professions retrograde instead of progressing ? 

We say, then, to artists,in order that taey may in- 
struct the people—to the people, that they may listen to 
the teaching of the artist: ‘ Whoever would wield to 
advantage any industrial profession, should learn to draw.” 

We say to the rich, “your children may be deprived 
of the wealth you now enjoy—let them learn to draw, 
and in misfortune, they will bless you for having given 
them a talent, an invaluable resource, which no one can 
take from them.” 

A method has been recently adopted by which one 
learns in two or three years to draw from memory, any- 
thing presented to the mind. 

With this method, while one learns to copy the objects 
which are before the eye, they are so graven upon the 
memory as to be reproduced at will; eye memory is the 
most common and the simplest. After six weeks of 
study, our pupils themselves are surprised at their 


familiarity with what they draw. 


24 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


Drawing from memory is having one’s thought, the 
expression of that thought, at the point of his pencil as 
the writer has his at the tip of his pen. All the great mas- 
ters drew from memory; hence their originality. 

Consulting, copying, kills invention and genius; com- 
posing, putting the thoughts rapidly upon paper by the 
aid of memory, that is the true process of invention. 


DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


FIRST LETTER. 
DEDICATION, 


You are correct, my dear Julia, If you do not com- 
pel me to put my method in writing it will remain only 
a project of my brain, and will never see the light. You 
have presented a motive for overcoming my indolence : 
“T wish my daughters to have a profession, if reverses 
should overtake them. Their fate is in your hands. 
Write to me and [ will interpret your lessons to them. 
Hereafter, other mothers will thank you with me, when 
your letters shall be given to the press.” 

~The press! that, dear friend, is an ugly word—it fills 
me with fear. Speak to a woman of the printer, and 
you take away what wit she has. You understand that 
I do not write for the press. If you betray me I shall 
have done my duty as a friend and shall be pardoned, 
for a woman is not compelled to be an author. Her 
first duty is to fulfil courageously and with dignity the 


sacred mission with which she is entrusted by the 
2 


26 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


Creator. What an admirable sphere is assigned to 
woman! How unworthy the name are those who desire 
to be men! Yet is not this desire the natural growth 
of our social organism? Men having monopolized every 
thing, women in seeking to be something say, “ Let us be 
men!” They are not aware how much they lose. To 
reinstate their minds in the truth, it is only necessary to 
make them realize what they are, and what they may be- 
come. You are no longer dependent, if you do not wish 
to be. A host of professions belong to you; you may 
make these vases, these clocks, jewels, mirrors, in short 
all the works of art which excel in ingenuity and ele- 
gance. You may monopolize the designs for robes, cash- 
meres, tapestry, you will attain a delicacy in little things 
which the hand of man can never equal, and you will 
execute works worthy of Penelope. We know what man 
can do, but we can form no idea as to what woman will 
accomplish. We must remember that it is scarcely fifty 
years since her education first attracted attention, while 
that of man has been cared for, more than four thousand 
years. 

I wished to dedicate my method to you, but my son 
counsels me to inscribe it to Mary your elder daughter. 
Maryis the name for all young girls, yours will represent 
them all for me. I intend to play the part of a mother, 


not of a professor. 


DRAWING FROM MEMORY. 22 


Without any pretension, and by conversation, I will 
begin then to teach drawing from memory. 

Remember these words and repeat them to your 
daughters. Drawing from memory, is to have one’s thought, 
the expression of that thought, at the point of his pencil, as 
the writer has his at the tip of his pen. All the artistic 
careers are open to those who acquire this talent. In- 
stinct, genius, will impel them in different directions; but 
every where and always, they will find useful occupa- 
tion. 

My object will be attained, if some day, pleased, or 
at least diverted by my instructions, they bestow a thought 
upon me and thee, my dear Julia, whose maternal solici- 


tude has impelled me to take up the pen. 
M. E. C. 


SECOND LETTER. 


LESSON.—THE TRUE TEACHER—DRAWING FROM 
MEMORY, 


You are notin so wild a country, my dear Julia, as 
to be unable to procure a veil of white gauze and four 
pieces of wood shaped like flat rules. 

You will adjust these rules in the form of a square 
slightly elongated, and stretch the gauze upon it. Thus 
you will obtain a kind of frame, the glass of which will 


28 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


be gauze; then purchase common drawing-paper and 
charcoal. 

Would it not be better, however, for me to send you 
the whole from Paris, since I am obliged to send you 
models? I shall purchase them of Susse, who has 
already sold me the gauzes called Rouillet. They sup- 
ply the place of the frame used by the ancients. 

The box will reach you two days after this letter, and 
on opening it you will first notice the sheet containing a 
list of necessary utensils ; do not begin anything until the 
articles there mentioned are all collected. 

The pupil should be ina good position, properly seated 
with her feet firmly on the floor: she should have the 
back of the chair befere her to support the board upon 
which she is to draw: a pasteboard never affords a per- 
fectly plane surface (1). 

The pupil will place the gauze on the chair before her, 
so that she can take it up and lay it down with ease. 

When she has sharpened two or three sticks of char- 
coal very fine, she will fasten her sheet of paper upon 
the board with four paper tacks—carpet tacks or wafers 
will answer—so that it will be perpendicular, 

This properly done, you will hand your pupil the first 
series of models, heads of men and animals, feet, hands, 
trees, and she will select the one which appears most 
simple, 


DRAWING FROM MEMORY. 29 


The model chosen, and placed on the board before the 
pupil, you will say to her: 

- Put your gauze over this model and trace with the 
charcoal (2). Trace until the tracery is perfect, and pay 
careful attention to what you are doing, for presently 
you are to copy the model. ~ 

The tracing finished, you call it the proof; thisserves 
as the professor. Then you replace it on the chair. 
The model is then placed perpendicularly before the pupil. 

We come now to the second operation : drawing from 
the model, The pupil copies her model, 

While thus occupied she may, whenever she wishes, 
apply the proof to the outlines already executed, either 
to correct them or to verify their accuracy ; this proof is 
her faithful instructor, not a prating professor filling 
the ear of his pupil with unintelligible phrases, but a 
silent teacher responding to the earnest eyes which con- 
sult him only by presenting the truth. Such instructors 
are always heard and understood, 

With the proof applied to the drawing, how can the 
pupil help seeing her faults? and she will realize and 
correct them so much the better for having recognized 
them herself. She will thus in time produce a drawing 
similar to the proof and therefore to the model. To efface 
the marks, an old glove will answer. [requested that the 
charcoal be sharpened very fine, because the outline should 


30 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


be very light yet perfectly distinct. It may be erased 
when the drawing is finished with a bit of muslin, and 
restored delicately upon the faint outlines. 

The first drawing of a pupil after this method, possess: 
es this remarkable merit; it is correct in the lines and 
the expression of character, a difficult attainment, yet 
this is the essence of drawing. 

While your pupil is thus employed, do not fail to 
repeat: Pay attention to what you are doing, for when 
you have finished your drawing, I shall take away the 
model-and you must reproduce it from memory. 

“That is impossible !” the pupil will respond. But 
you will be firm, you will require some expression of 
her idea and you will obtain it. 

She will make a sketch smaller or larger than the 
original, it is immaterial; generally, pupils in drawing 
from memory make it smaller. 

You will understand that when there are several mod- 
els upon the same sheet, the pupil executes but one of 
them. You will require her to draw it from memory 
before attempting another. 

You will gain confidence in my method from this fact, 
that, by simply following your pupil attentively, you will 
be able to give her advice when she attempts drawing 
from memory. And imperfect as this design may be, 
it yet will astonish you. 


DRAWING FROM MEMORY. 3] 


The memory of the eye is not the same with all per- 
sons. Some have more, some less. Like the other 
faculties it is strengthened by use. Often those who 
naturally possess the least, aquire it to a superior degree. 
But we will resume our lessons, for the first series is yet 
to be executed. 

You will number the first two drawings thus: “ No. 
1. drawing with proof. No. 2. drawing from memory ;” 
and preserve them asastarting-point. Thus with the others 
to the last. I pledge myself you will not wait for the last to 
express your surprise at the progress of your pupil, either 
in what she can accomplish with the model or from 
memory. 

When a pupil can execute every day, a drawing after 
the model and one from memory, her progress is much 
more rapid. But it is absolutely necessary that the two 
drawings be made the same day, otherwise, it will be 
difficult to produce the second from memory. Two or 
three hours work is enough for one day. 

One thing more is requisite, that your daughters in 
the evening of the same day, make a fresh appeal to their 
memory, by repeating in a small sketch-book with a lead 
pencil, the model of the day (3). 

At the second lesson, the same process. The model 
chosen is to be traced in order to obtain the proof; then 


copied, correcting it by the proof; then reproduced from 


32 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


memory. See that the last model is executed from mem 
ory before a new one is undertaken. 

If a pupil finds great difficulty in retaining the mem- 
ory of the model, you will permit her to trace it the sec- 
ond or third time, as often as she wishes, until she has in 
some degree impressed it upon her mind. I have thus 
obtained happy results from the poorest of all my pupils. 
My efforts with her have suggested this method. By re- 
peated exercises I have succeeded in giving her eye, 
hand, and memory. I have completed my task by de- 
monstrating the advantages of drawing from memory. 

You remember how we used to say when at boarding- 
school, “ It is impossible! I can never put all that in my 
head!” and yet, we did learn when we willed to do so. 
Because we were compelled, we were taught to learn. 
Learn how to learn, that is the whole secret. 

M. E, OQ, 


N. B. You will not accept a drawing until it has been 
submitted to the proof and found entirely correct. The 
proof may be of transparent paper. See sixth letter at 
the close of the Method. 


THE VOCATION. 33 


THIRD LETTER. 
OBSERVATIONS—THE VOCATION. 


Your letter, my dear Julia, is very welcome. I have 
awaited it impatiently. ‘‘ Has she fully comprehended 
me ?” “Have I made my instructions sufficiently 
clear?” Such were my questionings when your cheering 
words were received. All goes on well, then; you are in- 
clined to think your daughters possess extraordinary 
talent. My pupils make the same impression upon me 
and upon the artists who see their drawings. In short, 
you are pleased, and should not I be also? The task 
which used to be fatiguing is becoming a delightful 
occupation. 

You regret that you are not fifteen again, in order to 
be thus instructed? Ungrateful one! Is it not far 
sweeter for you to witness the return of that youth in 
your daughters, to watch the unfolding of their beauty 
and intellect? For they are now at an age when all 
their faculties are developed. At fourteen or fifteen the 
judgment begins to form. They no longer think through 
others but for themselves ; they see with their own eyes, 
they compare objects and actions, they discern the foi- 
bles of the great, become familiar with beauty and de- 
formity, youth and age, they observe the shadows which 

o* 


34 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


reveal light upon the face, the effects of the sun in field 
and wood, they notice that objects diminish in receding, 
and that a tree in the distance is smaller than a person 
very near. 

What phenomena are revealed, from the rough moun- 
tain which, seen in the horizon, appears of a pure blue or 
a cloud-like gray, to the straight walk whose extremities 
are equidistant, yet seem to contract like a tunnel ? 

In walking with your daughters, teach them to ob- 
serve when you have a wide prospect before you, how 
its extent may be reduced by perspective. To this end, 
plant a cane before this horizon, and seat yourselves fifteen 
steps distant: you will see an entire landscape develop 
in half or even a quarter of the cane. For this reason in 
drawing the perspective of a landscape it is necessary to 
be seated very low ; note this in passing. 

Before the age of fourteen or fifteen, all these observa- 
tions escape one. Tor how can the eyes retain what they 
have never perceived? Their memory is a work of 
comparison and judgment. One cannot draw objects 
like a monkey without reflection, just as one repeats 
words parrot-fashion without understanding them. 

Learn to see well, correctly; can anything be more 
important ? 

Jne of my pupils said to me one day, after two or 
three months of study. “ What achange! TI look at 


THE VOCATION, Mgt tr 


nothing with indifference! Everything interests me. 
The objects that pass before my eyes, have a form, color, 
details that I never perceived until now. I seem to 
have entered a new world. 

This pupil knew that when my lessons are not exactly 
followed I cease to give them. The first results had 
surprised her. Hence her care to notice well in order 
that she might reproduce correctly. Hence my control 
over her imagination. Acknowledge, dear friend, that it 
is a pieasure thus to develop the faculties of youth. 
You have reason to thank me for opening to you this 
source of delight; Icall it the happiness of God, since 
one really creates. Every day brings new attractions; 
each model, each lesson is different; you enter a domain, 
richer and more varied than nature, since it is nature her- 
self, studied and understood. 

Drawing from memory as executed by your pupils, 
in no way resembles, what is called drawing by knack ; 
you must be impressed with its naiveté. This truth of ex- 
pression sometimes fails in drawings made after the mod- 
el; though the former may be wavering in execution, it 
is correct in conception and action, while drawing by 
knack, however skilful in execution, is false in design. 
This accuracy, this truth to nature, results from the care 
with which the pupil corrects herself by the proof, 
This guides her in the right or recalls her when she has 


36 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


erred, If for instance, you say to her, this nose is too 
long, she will either shorten it but little or none at all, 
because she has drawn it according to her own observa- 
tion. But when she herself, applies the proof to her 
work, she is convinced of her errorand correctsit. Thus 
she arrives certainly at truth. The proof is a mirror, it 
is the object itself. 

You see, my dear Julia, no greater flights of imagina- 
tion are requisite to apply what I have written thus far; 
and it is the same with what I shall write hereafter. 
Everything is simple, easy beyond our realization, be- 
cause truth is always sought at a distance when it is 
under the hand. People torture themselves very much 
in this world, to attain an end instead of simply trusting 
to one’s own genius. 

See that streamlet which follows lovingly the 
chanrel nature has prepared for it, bearing in its un- 
Guiating course, freshness and plenty to its flowing 
banks, enriching itself with little brooks that join it 
on the way, and finally reaching the sea, a deep ma- 
jestic river; that is the emblem of great talent and 
genius. Nothing is an effort to them, they follow their 
bent. 

It is not so with inferior natures; with them all is bor- 
rowed, labored, like those canals excavated by many 


hands through the mountains, and which become dry if 


THE VOCATION. 1 


tke neighboring stream does not supply them, artificial 
tides without grace, without life. 

When I said, my dear Julia, “ Let your pupils select 
the design which appears most simple,” I meant, “ Let 
them follow their bent.” Thus their genius will ex- 
press itself. One chooses animals, another faces, an- 
other landscapes. So far from interfering with this 
taste, this preference, it should be cherished. It is 
the water from the fountain which takes its natural 
course. 

But they should understand that there are no degrees 
in the value of the objects sculptured or painted. The 
degrees exist only in the talent of the artists who execute. 
If the great paintings of Raphaél were sold by measure 
at the value of the Flemish, no one would be rich enough 
to purchase them; not even the whole of California would 
be sufficient to pay for the colossal statues if they were 
sold by the foot at the same price as the jewels of Ben- 
venuto Cellini. Young girls especially need this injunction, 
for they are too often dazzled by the idea of great paint- 
ings—historical paintings, as they are now called. The 
ambition to equal men, to compete with them proves 
their ruin, 

Woman the rival of man—what a burlesque! It is 
as absurd as a bird would be fastened to a plough, or an 
ox which should attempt to fly. What strength would 


38 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


the bird have with all its grace, what grace the ox with 
all its strength ? 

Women competitors with men! But why not? 

When you look at an oak do you think of exclaiming, 
‘This oak is ugly, I like the rose better?” 

Wherefore this emulation in great things when nature 
herself delights in the perfection of the least? Is not the 
mechanism of the smallest insect which walks and flies, 
more extraordinary than that of the goose which can do 
no more? Is the diamond colossal? Is not the plumage 
of the bird more wonderful, more finished than the don- 
key’s mane? Every one admires a beautiful tree, but 
how many are there whose eye and mind are sufficiently 
disciplined to analyze a flower and to comprehend the 
infinite delicacy of its structure ? 

This, my dear Julia, is reserved for our pupils. When 
they shall draw flowers from memory, they will catch the - 
idea, dissecting them as models for ornaments, for it is 
with flowers, fruits, animals, children, and women, that 
we make those coquettish compositions which belong to 
us, and which in the future will be executed only by 
women. ‘To each an appropriate task. 

M. E. O. 


SHADING AND CAPITALS. 39 


¥ 


FOURTH LETTER. 
LESSON.—PAGES OF SHADING AND CAPITALS. 


Ir is useless, my dear Julia, to send you models of 
capital letters and pages of shading. 

Your daughters will make capitals with the crayon, 
just as they do with the pen. 

And as to shading, a lithograph will give them all 
the values of tone, which they can imitate one after 
another. 

Have the shading very carefully executed, whether 
with the lead pencil, with red chalk or red crayon. 

The pupils should cover entire sheets with their ef- 
forts until they become skilful in handling the crayon, 
until the grain of the shading is perfectly regular, and 
appears only a uniform tint, without a single crayon 
stroke predominating, or even showing in what direction 
they have been given. These elements prepare the 
way for solid drawings, such as masses of shade and 
light. 

The crayon 1s more difficult to handle than the char- 
coal; drawings retouched by the crayon lose much of 
their merit when the pupil does not understand using 
the crayon with suppleness and without heaviness, It is 


40 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


not by bearing on that black is produced, but by pass- 
ing over and over the same place and always very lightly. 
In this way mellowness is obtained and dryness avoided. 
The pupil should hold her crayon inclined, not per- 
pendicularly, as in writing. She should not press it 
between the fingers. This observation is important. 
Now we come to capitals; your pupils will execute 
all the letters of the alphabet, and in different propor- 
tions. This is a theme for excellent and varied exer- 
cises; the route of the pupils is all laid out; they will 
not weary of it if they have any taste for drawing, and 
for yourself you will not neglect to repeat, “ Do not 


bear on!” 


“Pass many times over the same place!” 
“You hold your crayon too tightly!” “It is not suffi- 
ciently inclined.” And as nothing is insignificant, recom- 
mend to your pupils to use their bits of crayon in a 
holder; a small piece of crayon in the fingers gives only 
a hard, ill-formed outline. 

I have said enough upon shading and capitals. Let 
us return to our studies. The crayon is now laid aside 
and the charcoal plays its part. Here let me ask you 
to refer to my second letter, to recall what you may 
have forgotten upon this rule. The pupil should not 
take.a new model until the last shall have been con- 
scientiously executed from memory. 


Even if contrary to my expectations, your pupils do 


SHADING AND CAPITALS. 41 


not take pleasure in executing pages of shading and 
capitals (it is generally the unpromising, thankless 
ones who find these exercises monotonous), I urge you 
to insist, even to severity. 

All art has its difficulties, these are slight ones, 
Are the first lessons in dancing agreeable? Courage 
and perseverance | 

M. E. ©. 


P. S.—Pupils who are very desirous to learn, often 
execute the same drawing three times. Once corrected 
by the proof, once from memory, and again without the 
proof. The drawing from memory should always be 
made after the one corrected by the proof. 

As M. Ingres, says, in approving this method, 
“ Before allowing a pupil to draw from memory, she 
should previously have made a drawing mathematically 
correct; otherwise by repeating her faults, they are en- 
graven in the mind.” 


42 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


FIFTH LETTER. 


OBSERVATIONS — PREJUDICES — THE GREAT MAS- 
TERS — THE EDUCATION OF PAINTERS. 


You remember our great professor of music, who was 
half blind and whose mind but that did not 


hinder him from being a good musician. 


He said to me one day: “‘ You have no more talent 
than a horse; you play entirely from memory ; you will 
never be a musician, never play at sight.” 

To play at sight, was at that time an ambition; this 
was the standard of musical talent. Asif one were a 
poet because he reads verses well! But as much time 
was then spent in learning to read music, it was consid- 
ered a talent. At the present time, when good methods 
have been discovered which teach one in six months to 
read upon all the clefs, ideas have changed upon this point 
and upon many others. This reading at sight is now only 
a facility, which does not in the least prove one to be 
a musician, and playing from memory, on the contrary 
indicates favorable musical talent. Simplification leads 
us more directly toan end, Take the child who learns to 
read without spelling; she retains more easily from seeing 


EDUCATION OF PAINTERS. 43 


than from spelling, that p-h-a make fa, and that f-e-m 
make fem. So music is now read by intervals. It is the 
simplest, most logical idea, yet is the last to be adopted. 
By it all the clefs are reduced to one. 

There you see many prejudices destroyed. It will be 
the same with those encountered in the study of draw- 
ing. 

There is no lack of painters who pretend that it is 
injurious to draw from memory; this is the old story of 
the fox; they condemn this faculty because they do 
not possess it, and give as a reason that it destroys sim- 
plicity; truth to nature. They mistake simplicity for 
ignorance. 

My dear pupil, it is preéminently the drawing exe- 
cuted from memory, which will enable you better to 
execute the one you are to attempt after the model. 
Whoever can do much can do little. When you know 
how to construct a head and find yourself face to face 
with another head, you will seize at once upon the 
differences and harmony existing between the two. 
Harmony is a sure guide. The difference is quickly 
seen, well understood, and therefore easy to express. 
Is not the great difficulty in the art of drawing that of 
seeing well ? ; 

As soon as you see correctly you feel correctly, you 
execute correctly. 


44 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


How many great painters who are very unskilful | 
How mauy poor ones who possess astonishing address. 
“ Distrust your facility,” Gros used to say; it is your 
worst enemy. In fact if the hand rules the head, you 
will fall into the common-place knack. You are the 
slave of a crayon-stroke skilfully given. On the con- 
trary, if you follow your eye, your observation, you will 
secure correctness, you will find truth, you will be nat- 
ural, and naturalness is simply truth. 

This accuracy, this naturalness, is the result of much 
observation, of great memory. That, my dear Julia, is 
what I wish to give my pupils. It is everything. You 
will appreciate this assertion when we talk about draw- 
ing from nature. 

But before giving your pupils lessons from nature, 
they should know how the great masters have inter- 
preted her. When you walk out with your daughters, 
I advise you to see if there are not some articles worthy 
of purchase in the picture and curiosity stores. I have 
no doubt they would like to employ their savings in 
making portfolios. There is great pleasure in collecting 
the masterpieces of the great artists. Their names are 
not always affixed to their works. It will be best at 
first to purchase only those with signatures. 

It is an excellent point of departure for the education 
of your daughters. 


EDUCATION OF PAINTERS. 45 


The following are the names of the principal masters 
you will seek for : 


HISTORICAL PAINTERS. 


Raphaél, Poussin, 

Titian, Correggio, 

Rubens, Leonardo da Vinci, 
Van Dyck, Andre del Sarto, 
Paul Veronese, Murillo, 
Rembrandt, Jordaéns, 

Le Sueur, Gericault, ete, 


GENRE PAINTERS. 


Metzu, Boucher, 

Terburg, Chardin, 

Gerard Dow, Moreau, 

Miéris, Téniers, 

Vatteau, Greuse, 

Lancret, Pierre de Hog, ete, 
LANDSCAPE PAINTEBS. 

Ruisdaél, Berghem, 


Van Ostade, 
Claude Lorraine, 
Paul Potter, 


Salvator Rosa, 
Carel Dujardin, ete. 


When you have collected a portion of these masters, 
endeavor to have your daughters study the differences 
existing between these great geniuses. Some are of the 


first rank, others of the second; but there is beauty in 


46 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER«.- 


all; in all, material for instruction. What I especially 
enjoin is, not to be exclusive. Some painters are ruined 
by adopting only a certain style and condemning all 
others. All, however, should be studied impartially. 
Thus one preserves his originality, since he follows in 
the steps of no one master, The pupil of all is the 
pupil of no one; and from the united lessons received 
he creates his own wealth. How much to observe in 
this little museum, where you will direct the intellect 
of your daughters! While one master is absorbed in 
studying the minutest details, another aims only at pic- 
turesque effects, grand masses. The latter have rep- 
resented in historical painting, memorable scenes from 
ancient life; the former have painted naturally, and 
without effort, the most commonplace scene, just as it 
was presented to them. Some have sought inspiration 
in the ideal, others in the real. Paul Véronése, threw 
air and light everywhere with profusion. Rembrandt 
enveloped himself in deep mysterious light and shade. 
The former is gentle, the latter vigorous. All are 
different, and all are natural. 

If the women of Rubens are unlike those of Titian 
and Raphaél, it is because the Dutch are not like the Ital- 
ians. Hven more, in the same country, Titian, Raphaél, 
Paul Véronése, disagree regarding form; for each 
painter has his style, his predilection; each has painted 


EDUCATION OF PAINTERS. 47 


his ideal of woman, and he has not erred; he has paint 
ed beauty as it manifested itself to him. 

Call the attention of your pupils, also, to the hands in 
the works of the old masters. They are all very beauti- 
fal, yet unlike. ach painter has his distinct hand. It 
is so in nature. Notice carefully the pretty hands of 
your acquaintance ; some are those of Raphaél, others of 
Titian, others of Vatteau, etc., Nature has made them 
for all tastes, for all painters. 

After observing a little, according to those observa- 
tions, (pardon this play on words), your daughters will 
soon know how to appreciate a good engraving. Per- 
haps they will soon bring home an unsigned master- 
piece, purchased for a trifle. How excited they are! 
See them compare the nameless engraving with the one 
signed! Are they from the same master? “ No,” 
“Yes.” How disappointed they are if deceived! But 
how delighted, when a Raphaél or a Rubens is discovered. 

And as acquaintance with engraving leads to acquaint- 
ance with painting, what interest and emotion attend a 
visit to the Museum. 

The education of the painter is like that of the child; 
it begins in the cradle, since its first principle is seeing 
correctly, comparing surrounding objects; and. this 
study is renewed and continued every day. Holding the 


pencil constantly, working incessantly like a machine, 


48 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


will never create talent. He must live continually with 
his art, take interest in all that relates to it, concentrate 
all upon it, and apply it everywhere. There is nothing 
which does not teach something to the painter. 

From the engravings collected in their portfolios your 
pupils may trace either heads, hands, or entire figures of 
men or animais, whatever pleases them most. For this 
they may use transparent paper. The tracings thus 
made should be carefully preserved, with the name of 
the master affixed, in an album ; ‘where they may be fasten- 
ed with lip-glue. This will enable the pupil to clas- 
sify the masters in her mind, and to remember the 
characteristics of each. 

Hereafter these tracings will serve as guides, correctors, 
when she is sufficiently skilful to make pretty sketches 
from the engravings. (4.) 

I recommend substituting the transparent paper for 
the gauze, so that the minutest details may be traced 
and executed afterwards. Means all the more sure are 
indispensable the nearer we approach perfection. Thus, 
gradually, the pupil will execute drawings of such a 
character, that they will be attributed to the masters 
themselves. 

IT have no doubt your daughters will soon make this 
attainment, only on condition, however, that my instruc- 


tions are followed with exactness. 


THE CRAYON. 49 


If you could see all that experience has taught and is 


teaching me every day, I should count on your per- 


severance, 
M. E, OQ. 


SIXTH LETTER. 


LESSON.—THE CRAYON TAKES THE PLACE OF 
CHARCOAL. 


You say, my dear Julia, that you are delighted with 
the progress of your daughters; the younger, Eliza, who 
used to know nothing, has overtaken the elder. That 
does not astonish me. Mary, who had already used the 
crayon, looked upon charcoal sketches as beneath her 
notice. That is an error, for charcoal is the painter’s 
friend. Hereafter when she attempts composition, she 
will understand the words of one of our most distinguish- 
ed artists. ‘ Charcoal is master.” 

She must already appreciate it in drawing from mem- 
ory. One cannot be too skilful in the delicate use of this 
species of pencil. We shall soon come to studies where 
it is much more difficult to employ it. 

Drawing from memory becomes little by little to your 
daughters, as to my pupils, a’ decided recreation; and 


it is perfectly natural. When the pupil has conscien- 
3 


50 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


tiously finished her drawing, taking pains to ccrrect it 
frequently by the proof, she has performed a fatiguing 
labor it must be admitted, but a very useful one; for it 
is just this persistent attention which imprints the model 
on her mind, And when intelligence is freed from such 
thraldom, what use she makes of her freedom! How 
rapidly mind and memory combine in creating with the 
pencil! One is astonished oneself, at what is retained, 
at what is accomplished. 

Already you tell me you find the manner of sketch- 
ing the model becomes bolder, clearer, and much more 
correct. 

This progress is inevitable, and ought to be speedy. 
Every time a pupil has deviated from the truth, she has 
been forced to return. To those who enlarge, as well as to 
those who contract—the more common fault—the traced 
proof has always given the true proportions, It has put 
a compass in their eye; an old saying, but it expresses my 
idea. 

When the pupil copies, she should let her pencil fall 
perpendicularly before the model, holding it very lightly ; 
she will find her vertical line as also her other guide, 
by poising the pencil horizontally before the model. 

Nevertheless she must redouble her attention. In 
order to make her traced proof, it is important that the 


paper be fastened perfectly straight upon the board, as 


THE CRAYON. 51 


I have indicated; the drawing will have all necessary 
precision. If precision is used in the means, it will be 
manifest in the results. 

The charcoal sketch being finished, the pupil will repass 
over the charcoal delicately with a very soft crayon, care- 
fully regarding the form, Then with her glove, she will 
remove all the charcoal, and there will remain only a 
faint outline like a spider’s web. Small drawings may 
be executed with the lead pencil, and large ones with a 
crayon. (5.) 

This is the point at which your pupil enters upon the 
minutest details; therefore, greater care is requisite in 
the execution of the model. 

Do not forget this observation, that in the shade, the 
outline is always vigorous, and in the light, always 
delicate. Point out to her what escapes her notice. 
You should allow her to do nothing mechanically. It 
is only lost time. One pencil stroke rationally given, 
its purport understood, is worth more and benefits more, 
than a hundred strokes given without reflection. 

Here, my dear Madame, you are to reap pleasure, if 
you have taught with firmness; otherwise a great disap- 
pointment awaits you. You remember my request that 
the pages of shading and capital letters should be exe- 
cuted with care and in great number. If I have been 
obeyed, the first pencil stroke of your daughter Eliza 


no DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


before the model will be good; if not, it will spoil the 


charcoal. In that case she must return to the shading 
exercise. 


But if Mary’s drawing is good, and I presume it 
will be since she has already crayoned, she may, without 
delay execute it from memory; beginning with the char- 
coal and finishing with the crayon. 

The memory is exercised still more pleasingly in this 
second study, because the pupil having drawn the model 
twice in succession, once with the charcoal, and once with 
the crayon, has it more thoroughly engraven upon the 
mind. Then the result being more satisfactory in the 
drawing after the model, it is more so in the drawing from 
memory. Still another step will be gained, if in the 
evening your daughters repeat the lesson of the day in 
their sketch-books., 

Heavily shaded landscapes exercise the hand in using 
the crayon. The broad zones of sky always commence 
extremely light, and blend with the darker portions of 
it, by such subtle gradations that the labor is never sus- 
pected. There are no more useful studies than such 
lithographs; they render shading exercises interesting. 

But I must stop here. I ought not to make my letters 
too long, since a single one furnishes material for thirty 
lessons. Your daughters undoubtedly know how to use 
the crayon, but they do not shade yet. 


BEAUTY AND DEFORMITY. 5a 


You tell me they have worked regularly three hours 
a day (6) excepting Sunday. .That is an excellent me- 
thod of regulating the lessons so as to make rapid pro 
gress. You may judge so yourself, since in seeing what 
they accomplish, no one would believe they have so 
little time to study. It is certain that at Madame 
C 


prise was created. This is a little gratification of which 


*s soiree, where they designed charades, much sur- 


my pupils are very fond, and which they seek somewhat 
coquettishly. Drawing from memory, excites the emula- 
tion of every one: so my studio is like a society of free- 
masons; no pupil betrays her secret; self-respect will 
not allow her to reveal the means she employs for learn- 
ing so rapidly. 

Yet all have the greatest desire to see this method in 


print. Explain that if you can, signora professore. 
M. EK. OC. 


SEVENTH LETTER. 


OBSERVATIONS—-WOMAN TRULY WOMAN— 
BEAUTY AND DEFORMITY. 


You ask, my dear friend, if you shall permit your 
daughters to copy the lithographs of Gavarni; they take 


54 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER, 


great pleasure in doing so, you say. I must complimeut 
their taste in selecting the works of this artist; it is a 
proof that they have already studied nature, and are 
charmed at seeing her thoroughly understood and ex- 
pressed. 

Gavarni will leave to posterity a very correct idea of 
the manners and the style of his contemporaries. That 
is a desirable attainment for woman, whose mind possesses 
such tact in observing the details of familiar life, and 
whose delicate raillery could so well bring them out in 
relief. Gavarni, however, will still be the master. 

I remember his saying to me one day, that success in 
lithography is impossible without knowing how to draw 
from memory. 

You have doubtless noticed that it is just his manner 
of shading which I teach. The work does not show it- 
self, hence its charm. In masses of shading the less there 
is of detail, the fewer distractions. 

The charcoal giving a dead tint, the effect of a 
charcoal-drawing is very pleasing. 

For that reason, in imitation of the great professors, 
I teach water-colors by flat tints. 

One thing I would recommend ; and it is to improve 
every opportunity of becoming acquainted with our 
modern masters. 


Their names recur so often in the journals that it 


~ 


BEAUTY AND DEFORMITY. : 55 


is scarcely necessary to give a list of them. I will men- 
tion only Rosa Bonheur, because she is a woman, and 
because she paints animals with wonderful skill. 

As I look at the admirable works of this artist, I 
congratulate myself for having said, “ We have no con- 
ception of what our sex can do.” When woman shall 
learn how to possess talent without ignoring her woman- 
hood, she will astonish man; and what is still better, 
she will charm him. What original and pleasing illus- 
trations she can give; that of Berquin, for instance! 
Could any man have delineated it with such grace and 
expression ? 

But when a woman desires to paint large-sized pic- 
tures, and mounts the ladder, she is lost—lost as a 
painter—lost as a woman. As a painter, she will fail in 
force; as a woman in grace, Why descend from the 
pedestal upon which the Creator has placed us, giving 
us that happy feebleness which is irresistible! It is 
such an admirable combination—the strength of man 
with the delicacy of woman! And though I cannot tell 
how, without arms, powder, or ball, we move the world 
and place her mighty conquerors at our feet. 

So instruct your daughters that they lose not the 
privileges of their sex, by indulging in those masculine 
exercises which can only injure their loveliness and 


deprive them of all their grace. 


56 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


I cannot see what a woman gains, but I know how 
much she loses, in mounting a horse or swimming. We 
have been created with extremely delicate organs. 
Women are jewels; they need a casket. Thus we are 
loved by men; their greatest happiness is to promote 
ours; stronger than we, they love to make sacrifices for 
us, even as we love to make sacrifices for our children, 
more helpless than ourselves. Ours is a goodly 
heritage. Let us not destroy it by seeking to extend it. 
Let us be simply what we are, and we shall be always 
well off. Let us elaborate our works, and men will ad- 
mire them and seek them: in our talent they recognize 
their ideal, that which captivates and enchains them. 

As you receive the Courrier des Dames you must 
have noticed that the fashion-plates are much improved. 
There is, however, one capital defect; for the most part 
they are impracticable, and the reason is very evident : 
these styles are designed by men, who cannot be familiar 
with what is suitable for us. So there are always false 
knots, false buttons, placed where there is nothing to tie 
—nothing to button. There are some models of dresses 
in which it is impossible to move about or breathe. 
We can have no idea how the taste of woman has been 

corrupted by the sight of these doll-figures, nor how many 
young girls have laced so as to destroy all their freshness, 
in order to attain the shape of a fashion-plate. 


BEAUTY AND DEFORMITY. 57 


I trust your daughters have not fallen into the sin 
of deforming God’s creations; that they possess the grace 
and suppleness of their mother; that their movements 
are free and easy; in short, that their forms are properly 
developed, notwithstanding those women who compress 
the waist until they are as stiff as cuirassiers, 

When one learns to draw, dear friend, a little instruc- 
tion upon beauty is not amiss. There are so many erro- 
neous ideas regarding beauty! Detain your daughters 
a moment before the Venus of the pagans, or the Eve 
of Christendom, so often represented by the great mas- 
ters, and ask them if these forms are made to wear the 
costumes of our fashion-books. Weep, poets of the 
Almanach des Muses! Those wasp-waists you have sung 
are now only deformities, 

In these master-pieces, which are such simply be- 
cause they are the image of fair nature, the shoulders 
of woman are narrow and sloping; any costume, there- 
fore, which tends to elevate or enlarge them, is absurd. 
The head is small; it should not then be increased in 
size and overloaded. With square shoulders and a 
large head, woman fails in distinction and elegance. 

Your daughters will recognize these truths in looking 
over their collection of old engravings. They will 
agres with me that, if women were to design the modes, 


their costumes would regain the feminine character 
3* 


58 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


which they are now losing every day; that we should be 
at ease in our apparel, without sustaining any loss. We 
are not alarmed at a change of fashion, while men are 
very pusillanimous. For, perhaps it has escaped your 
notice, that since 1830, men have fought for liberty; 
they have delivered many orations upon liberty ; whence 
it arises that they have fought again for liberty, and 
that they begin anew to prate of liberty. But, after 
all, it is the women who have broken their chains. 
They educate themselves, and they dress as they please. 
They wear, without embarrassment, the most extraordi- 
nary ornaments of distant countries. Dress materials 
have no longer, as it were, any fashionable season. 
There is, indeed, a fashion, but it is the slave of each 
woman, who modifies it according to her caprice, while 
formerly, women were the slaves of fashion; such 
slaves, under Louis V., as to wear perukes with a fair 
suit of hair, and to shave it, @ /a Titus, under Napoleon. 
Now every woman arranges her hair to suit her face. 

But men dare not discard their stove-pipe hats, nor 
their frightful black vestments, in which they are mar- 
ried and buried. To change one’s costume is a great 
audacity; it exposes one to peril. 

The barrier is overthrown ; what metamorphoses await 


us in the future! I should like to come to life again in 


TRACING FROM NATURE. 59 


two thousand years, and see what woman will be then; 


would not you? 
M. E. C. 


P. 8.—Drawing is an art which renders woman truly 
feminine, It increases her love of home, by teaching 
her to render it attractive. It imparts taste in orna- 
menting her house, and in designing the dresses and hats 
she orders, and which she may make herself, if she 
knows how to draw. Drawing and painting do not 
oblige a woman to show herself in public in order to 
call attention to her talent. It is, in a word, an art 
which lends modesty and wisdom, which subdues imagi- 


nation to the control of reason. 


KIGHTH LETTER. 


LESSON.—METHOD OF TRACING FROM NATURE AND 
THE CAST. 


ExpPErIENcE has taught me, my dear Julia, that pu- 
pils who have traced much and drawn outlines from the 
cast, shade easily. 

For this reason, in ordering models for my method, I 
have placed those from the cast in the second series. 

The time has arrived, therefore, to execute the second 


and third series, before commencing to shade, so that 


60 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


the pupil learns to trace while drawing the last models 
in outline. 

When the pupil can correctly trace a front face from 
the cast, and make a good proof, it is evidence that she 
understands how to find the outline in the shadow. 

As it is much more difficult to find the outline in the 
shadow, than to shade, it follows that undoubtedly the 
pupil has already overcome a great difficulty. 

In making outlines from the cast, then, and in correct- 
ing them with the proof, the pupil has constanly before 
her eyes a shaded cast, either a head, foot, or hand; 
and by studying the outline conscientiously, she very 
naturally fixes the form of the shade in her mind. 

The proofs from the cast, and from inanimate nature, 
should, therefore, be studied simultaneously with the 
second series of models, and afterward the outline mod- 
els of the third series, which are entire figures, with 
outlines from the cast, corrected with the proof; then 
draw again from memory. 

It is highly important to study the hand from the 
cast, since the position in nature is generally bad. Very 
few persons place their hands naturally with a correct 
and supple movement. The hand is easily benumbed, 
and becomes stiff. 

For a franc, one may easily procure hands moulded 


after nature. 


TRACING FROM NATURE. 61 


The outlines from the second series of casts give the 
pupil some idea of the perfection to be manifest in her 
proof, the method of taking the different faces and pro- 
files of a head, foot, or hand; then the size to be adopt- 
ed for tracing upon glass, when the pupil wishes to 
enlarge her model. 

These models made by pupils of my method prove 
that the instruction therein given is the truth, and that 
‘every one who follows it exactly will arrive at the same 
results, 

Pupils who wish to render themselves better ac-- 
quainted with what I have suggested can procure 
simply the foot of Clodion (easier to transport) at 
the office of “L’Ane Savant,” 69 Boulevard Saint 
Martin, with the shaded models, which cannot be ob- 
tained elsewhere. 

The outline series may also be obtained there, together 
with any information regarding professors. 

But how shall we learn to trace from nature and from 
the cast ? 

You take an ordinary wooden chair with barred back, 
such as are seen in the public gardens; then procure a 
board 5 centimétres in width and 1 métre 30 centimétres 
in length; fasten it to the back of the chair, by passing 
it between the bars, so that it may be inclined forward, 
and make a back. (7). 


62 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


When seated in the chair, the pupil’s head will nat- 
urally be supported and steadied upon this board. 

Let Mary be seated ; then bring the gauze before her 
with its base, letting it slide in its grooves until just on 
a level with her eye. 

She will place her head perpendicularly so that she 
shall move neither to the right nor the left, and steady 
the base of the gauze with her feet so that it will be 
firm. Then she bandages one eye with a handkerchief. 

She will have previously prepared several well-sharp- 
ened pieces of charcoal. 

These steps taken, Eliza will place herself motionless 
before Mary, who will draw her head upon the gauze, 
as it appears to her, making only the outlines. The 
nearer Eliza is to Mary, the more closely will the draw- 
Ing approach natural proportions. Another means of 
enlarging is to remove the delineator from the gauze. 
For further experience, study for yourself the different 
modes of enlarging. Nothing is easier: By receding 
from or approaching the object to be drawn, different 
proportions are obtained. 

In commencing, have your pupils trace hands and 
feet from the cast in the largest possible porportions, so 
that they may become familiar with the form of the out- 
line. This exercise will give them a better understand. 


ing of nature. 


TRACING FROM NATURE. 63 


It is a general rule that in drawing an entire figure 
or a cast, the distance of the delineator from the model 
should be three times its height. Thus, if the model, 
seated or standing, is one niétre in height, the delineator 
should place himself three métres distant. 

Another important rule: the centre of the object 
drawn should be on a level with the pupil’s eye. For 
example, in drawing a chair, she should be seated upon 
the floor, supporting her head against the wall or any 
solid body. The chair, so difficult to put in perspective, 
suddenly appears perpendicular upon the paper, as upon 
the floor. 

To avoid sitting upon the floor, a model-table may 
be used, placing upon it the objects to be drawn. A 
model-table, which should be five feet in width, six in 
length, and a foot in height, is, however, an inconvenient 
and cumbersome piece of furniture. It is perhaps better 
to accustom ourselves to sit very low. That is a matter 
of choice. But the elevation of the seat is determined 
by this rule: the centre of the model should be on a 
level with the eye. 

You will find more pleasure than you anticipate in 
taking this little course of perspective. From chairs, 
furniture, etc., you will proceed to trace all the corners 
of your room, the stair-case, vestibule, anything you 
please. But notice, if you are not seated very low, the 


64 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


floor will rise like a mountain. It is just so with land- 
scapes. 

Your daughters will acquire facility in tracing cor- 
rectly by practising upon inanimate nature. By in- 
animate nature, we mean all that has not life, that does 
not move about—furniture, houses, dead animals, casts 
moulded after nature, sculpture, ete. Before inanimate 
nature the outline will become more clear, more delicate, 
but not without application, not without patience. 

To prevent your pupils being discouraged at the 
outset, select objects with the most simple lines. Do 
not forget an important point in this lesson: your pupils 
will alternately make drawings from the second series 
of outlines, and proofs from the cast. Then outline 
drawings from the cast, and from the third series—entire 
figures. 

It is fatiguing to trace more than ten minutes con- 
secutively ; the vision is dazzled; the head, which must 
be held perfectly still, becomes wearied, and the arm 
unsupported is benumbed. i 

In directing our studies, we must take strength into 
account. When fatigued we lose all our faculties. I 
have not lost that of loving all three of you. 

M. «i. G3: 


Norz.—For further details, see sixteenth letter. 


METHOD OF SHADING. 65 


addressed to the professors of the schools upon the 
method of tracing from the cast. 


NINTH LETTER. 


LESSON.—METHOD OF SHADING—UTILITY OF THE 
GAUZE, 


Now we come, my dear Julia, to shaded drawings 
from the great masters. 

Sketches from the masters are executed with red 
erayon. Shaded engravings with black. 

There are three series from Raphaél, Titian, Pous- 
sin, Van Dyck, Rubens, ete. 

The first series is indispensable. 

The second must not be given till the first is fin- 
ished, and the third after the second. 

The second and third series are appropriate New 
Year gifts, for the engravings are worthy of being 
framed and hung in your daughters’ rooms. 

However, if you have good engravings from the 
masters, the figures in which are at least from 25 centi- 
métres to 30 centimétres in height, you can avoid this 
expense. 

The size of figures is that adopted at the Academy 
of Fine Arts. 


66 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


Still, I ought to mention that you will never find as 
fine ones for the same price. 

When your pupils have finished these three series, 
they will have acquired a talent by which they can 
maintain themselves if necessity demands. 

The series answer, also, for drawing in sepia as well 
as for water-colors, so that this expenditure once made, 
there is nothing more to pay for models or masters. 

I have found it difficult, my dear Julia, to make 
choice of models of nude studies which are suited to 
young girls. 

The task is accomplished. The public will recom. 
pense me for my pains, as I shall announce this good 
news in the fourth edition of my method, in which I 
have revised, corrected, and added many things that ex- 
perience and the lectures of my professors have given 
me. 

I had already made some improvements, you know, 
in the third edition. I will refer you to the sixteenth 
letter for advice upon shading and adopting the method 
best suited to the ability of each pupil. 

When the outline is well secured with lead pencil 
upon the paper, the half-tint is added to the whole, by 
rubbing either with the finger or with cotton wadding, 
The charcoal is employed in the heavy portions, the 
lights taken out with a crumb of bread, and the outline 


METHOD OF SHADING. 67 


finally redrawn with a very fine charcoal over the crayon 
which disappears. 

These operations, which succeed each other rapidly, 
give the pupil a thorough comprehension of masses of 
light and shadow, as well as of the half-tint. 

One does not obtain pretty pictures in this way, but 
artistic designs, while by adopting the method indicated 
in the sixteenth letter, they are at the same time fin- 
ished, and upon a grand scale. 

But both methods are beneficial, and help to impress 
the results upon the memory. 

The outline drawing, as well as the shaded one, 
should always be made from memory. 

It is well, my dear Julia, to give your pupils differ- 
ent methods of operating; it sets their wits to work, ag 
they say, to find a method of their own. 

There are pupils who, to increase the black, add 
crayon sauce, which they use with the crayon itself, 
without touching it with the finger. 

Others retouch the flesh with red crayon. 

Others, to obtain greater vigor, use the charcoal again, 
and after having fixed it twice, fix it the third time. 

In landscapes, it is well to finish the trees in the 
half-tint before fixing it the first touching up. 

Wonderful landscapes in charcoal may be drawn in 
this manner. 


68 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


When my pupils draw landscapes from nature, they 
‘ begin by making their traced proof in the morning; 
they study the outline from that, draw it from memory, 
and replace the outline upon the halftint. Then, from 
two to six o’clock, when the effect of the landscape is 
finest, they dispose the lights and shades, and complete 
studies worthy of the best masters. 

Every day’s experience advances their progress. 
They are following a course so safe and so true, that 
willingness and application suffice for their advancement. 

Some of the pupils of the professors of my system 
have suggested the idea of making a third drawing with- 
out the proof, to satisfy the incredulity of persons who 
tell them they trace. 

I will say here: A pupil should never trace if her 
teacher makes the proof for her; it would only retard 
her progress. The pupil’s sole aim in tracing, therefore, 

is to make her own proof; that is to say, her instructor. 
a promised to speak of the service M. Rouillet has 
rendered to art in introducing his gauze frames. 

Invaluable as this invention is to my method, I 
assure you I am not partial. 

The ancients traced from nature through a frame, as 
your daughters have done through the gauze, 

This process was attended with great disadvantages, 


For every tracing it was necessary to put a preparation 


METHOD OF SHADING. 69 


upon the frame in order that the pencil might leave its 
mark, The transfer of the drawing to paper was very 
difficult. It often happened that the frame was broken, 
This has given success to the invention of M. Rouillet. 

In my opinion, the stretched gauze possesses great 
advantages. It is always ready, does not break, gives 
the lines pérfectly correct, and the transfer of the design 
is made in the simplest manner. 

In this way: 

When your tracing is finished, you fasten a sheet of 
paper perfectly straight upon your board, and over this 
paper you place the gauze perfectly straight also, taking 
care that it touches equally everywhere. For the rest, 
if your daughters fail in some, they will do others well. 

Experience is necessary even in the smallest matters. 

You are ready to say now: “ But if one can thus 
trace nature, what need is there of learning to draw?” 

One must be very skilful, my dear friend, not to 
disfigure these tracings. The process can only be truly 
useful when one thoroughly understands it. 

The stretched gauze is like the photograph; it does 
not kill art; it only illumines it; and you will see what 
service it is to render us now that your daughters under- 
stand tracing. 

Then you pass over the outline again upon your gauze, 


and the impression is left upon-your paper. 


70 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


You next take a sheet of transparent paper which 
you place over the drawing (transferred from the gauze 
to the paper), and, looking at your model, you make a 
proof. 

To me the utility of good tracing lies in the proof. 
I use it as an instructor in drawing from nature, a 
severe exacting master, whom the pupil heeds, for it 
is to the pupil he speaks. 

It demands and obtains the precise dimensions 
proposed ; an excellent thing, for in composing, the 
figures must be of the size required by the dimensions 
of the picture. 

Thus the same instructor, under whom you have 
copied the model, comes to your aid in drawing from 
nature. 

When your daughters are sufficiently disciplined in 
this school, they will become instructors themselves, and 
will spoil no more proofs in making use of them. On 
the contrary, they will improve them before nature. 

They will thus have learned the laws of perspective, 
with no other rule than the truth through which they 
look; for the gauze is truth. 

The drawings repeated from memory being traced 
from nature, will fix objects in their mind just as 
they are. 

And as they take great pleasure in drawing from 


LIGHTS AND SHADES. 71 


memory, as they wish, you say, to learn how to represent 
everything, I trust they will thank me for opening 
before them so rich a career. All the works of man— 
all the works of God are now theirs. As a reward for 
so much, I ask only a little place in their heart and 


yours. 
M. E. OC. 


TENTH LETTER. 


OBSERVATIONS.—VARIETY IN LIGHTS AND SHADES, 
DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF NATURE. 


Wett, my dear Julia, does the shading progress to 
your daughters’ satisfaction? “No,” you say? I am 
expecting such a response. 

They have seen what are called young ladies’ draw- 
ings, and are eager to begin that pleasing work. Such 
a talent is, however, of no value. It may always be ac- 
quired by time and patience, but wins success in nothing; 
it is an imbecile triumph. The use of the crayons, the 
science of drawing, will give your pupils this accomplish- 
ment, and something better. Besides, I will teach them, 
by-and-by, a process of executing most elaborate draw- 


ings. But you must not think of that at present. 


72 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


They should now apply themselves to a more serious 
subject, that of properly adjusting lights and shades, as 
in mezzotint. It is all-important. 

For when they take up water-colors, and must use a 
brush to indicate light and shade, will the pleasing work 
of pretty drawings render them skilful in painting? 
Certainly not; the difficulty in water-colors is not to 
feel your way, but to strike unerringly. 

Therefore it is impossible to succeed in this species of 
painting unless memory assists intelligence in the pres- 
ence of nature. The chief science, the first talent re- 
quisite, is that of understanding what one does, of hitting 
exactly the light, the half-tint and the shade, as one hits 
exactly the form of outline. 

To this end accustom your daughters to notice the 
effects of the light: 

How figures are illumined ; 

Why shadows exist. 

Without thus studying nature, they will always make 
poor copies from models. 

Teach them what a projected shadow is: one object 
casts a shadow upon another; the rim of a hat upon the 
face, a ruffle upon the hand, a piece of furniture upon 
the floor, etc.: and we, ourselves have our projected 
shadow which follows us everywhere. 


You remember the pretty German romance of Peter 


LIGHTS AND SHADES. 78 


Eehlemild, who was so unhappy because he had sold his 
shadow to the devil. Well, an artist would be quite as 
much to be pitied if his were not at the point of his pen- 
ceil. It is the shadow cast which gives life, air, posi- 
tion. 

Its forms vary according as the light is higher or 
lower. In the open air, have you never observed how 
shadows contract or lengthen as the sun ascends or de- 
scends ? 

At night, by lamplight, shadows are very strong and 
very exact. 

Another observation : 

The light is always excessively sharp upon the hair, 
because it is glossy, and upon a round body. Well ren- 
dered, it gives form to the head. 

Satin goods receive also a very sharp light. 

It is broader upon silk, and still more so upon wool- 
lens, cotton, and linen. 

In drawing stuffs, we have the shadow, the mezzotint, 
the light, and the reflection. 

Generally upon polished surfaces, such as crystals, 
marbles, porcelains, metals, varnished woods, gildings, 
etc., the lights are very rare and sharp. It is important 
to know this, for the light indicates the material and the 
quality. Thus, in a drawing, a new piece of furniture 


differs from an old through the manner of disposing 
4 


74. DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


the lights. Little by little all these observations will 
find lodgment in your daughters’ minds, and be brought 
forward with the pencil at the proper time and place. 

As soon as they understand how to look at objects, 
they will no longer see them without giving attention to 
the form of the lights and shadows. 

They will see how monuments, buildings and thatched 
roofs become illumined. 

Nothing will escape them, neither the great masses of 
shade and light upon the trees nor the shadows thrown 
from the clouds, which sometimes throw a whole village 
in the shade and again leave only the tall spire lumi- 
nous. 

Upon the seashore, the effect is magical, especially in 
the northern countries, where the sky is nebulous, 

The effect of the light is also much more varied and 
striking in the north than in the south. The cloud is 
the friend of the colorist. 

An entirely new life is dawning for you and your 
daughters. To your eyes, every work of nature begins 
to assume an interesting aspect. The artist witnesses 
each moment the most marvellous sights. When travel- 
ing, he experiences a thousand varied sensations. He 
goes from wonder to wonder; where others see and feel 
nothing, he beholds, compares, admires. He might 
pass over the same route twenty times without fatigue, 


LIGHTS AND SHADES. 75 


for to him the fascination is always new, every hour of 
the day, as often as the effect changes. And this effect 
extends even to the smallest things: there it is a cow 
on which the light falls, that enlivens an undulation of 
the plain; here a cottage, reflecting the sunlight, and 
assuming, through the tufts of foliage, proportions of 
_ admirable beauty. | 
To express the exalted happiness I have often expe- 
rienced in these contemplations would be impossible. 
We seem to approach nearer God in more clearly com- 
prehending His creation, and we bless Him for having 
bestowed this faculty of appreciation. In a word, we 
fee! rich in all we see, and in view of the indifference, or 
rather the insensibility of those around us, we seem to 
possess the world alone, while some beneficent genius 
unveils to us wouders which are concealed from others. 
How often, in the presence of nature’s marvellous 
works, have I pitied the presumption of those men who 
attempt to give us an idea of paradise. What! far 
from inventing the beauties of this world, you die with- 
out having comprehended them, and you would invent 
the things of heaven! But the heaven of your imagi- 
nation, oh men! will never equal God’s earth, and no 
one wishes it to be so. As for myself, while patiently 
and gratefully enjoying the blessings of this world 
which I love, it is my prayer to be admitted, one day, 


76 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


to the companionship of those whom God has reserved 
for us in his presence. But I should think myself un- 
worthy of them if I presumed to form any idea of the 
happiness which awaits us on high, and which I invoke 


for youall. Thus may it be! 
M. E. O. 


ELEVENTH LETTER. 
OBSERVATIONS.—NUDE FIGURES. 


You write, my dear Julia: “There is one thing 
that alarms me in seeing my daughters become artists, 
An amateur talent no longer satisfies them. After three 
months of study they speak of composing, and have 
attempted it already. This drawing from memory ex- 
cites their imagination, and impassions them, even, to 
such a degree that they deny themselves the pleasures 
of the ball, because the preparations consume time, 
while their highest delight is to hoard up drawing after 
drawing in their portfolios.” 

What joy I experience in reading this passage in 
your last letter! I see that, far or near, all my pupils 
are the same. 

Eliza, you tell me, prefers to compose jewels, vases, 


ornaments. We have done well, then, in teaching her 


NUDE FIGURES. ry 


all varieties of drawing. Nothing is an obstacle to her; 
she follows her vocation, Her instinct develops itself; 
the taste for curiosities, that bric-a-brac which inspires 
fanaticism, will supply her with many little pleasures. 
It will cost her something, perhaps, but her savings 
will be well expended. The love of ancient things 
involves a host of good lessons. 

Mary collects engravings. She wishes to be a 
painter. If I remember right, she has an eye for color. 
It is wonderful. Hach of your daughters pursues a 
different path. Their work will possess a two-fold in- 
terest for their mother, and there will be no rivalry 
between them. 

It is needful that I calm your apprehensions; your 
fear that your daughters will become real artists only 
by drawing nude figures from nature. 

Have I not said, that woman should never, under 
any pretext, forget her womanhood; that to be a woman 
is her first condition in life? Woman possesses a 
nobility which she should preserve before all things else. 
Courage, will, devotion, perseverance, delicacy of senti- 
ment, self-respect, or in other words, dignity—these are 
her titles, These virtues constitute woman, and give 
her as much control over herself as she naturally main- 
tains over others. 


I cannot, with this high estimate of our sex, desire 


78 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


any thing which would depreciate or dishonor her. I 
wish, on the contrary, to reinstate the name of woman- 
artist. 

I am well aware how it is regarded at the present 
day; it suggests a woman who assumes masculine man- 
ners and habits, an amphibious being who is neither a 
man, nor yet a woman. 

I have never been able to see the necessity of that 
in acquiring talent. On the contrary, the prime requi- 
site of originality is to be always perfectly one’s self, 
and to represent that self in one’s works. Why am I 
devoted to painting children? Because I love them 
supremely. To see them move about in my studio 
charms me; all their motions are beautiful. I shall 
never have time to execute all they inspire within me. 
It is because they are natural, and this naturalness is 
God’s style, His work. 

If a woman would be thoroughly herself, she can- 
not well represent a Hercules, nor a battle. She must 
confine herself to those subjects which are allied to her 
sphere; which possess, in some degree, her qualities, 
and to which she can assimilate. It seems to me her 
domain is large enough, and beautiful enough. As I 
have said elsewhere, with women, children, animals, 
fruits, flowers, etc., one may create master-pieces for a 
lifetime, 


FIGURES IN COSTUME. 79 


Man, then, who cannot be properly represented by 
woman, ought to be excluded from our studies for this 
reason, and for a much stronger one, which it is not 
necessary to explain. 

Children and partially nude women; these are the 
extreme limit for us. Yet these half-nude figures are 
necessary only for ornamental sculpture, for clocks, vases, 
jewels, etc., and you will agree with me that for these, 
they are not at all inappropriate. The subject is al- 
ways mythological, and they are not colored. 

As to figures in costume, it is perfectly useless to 
paint them nude at first, for the purpose of dressing them 
afterward; worse than that, it is destructive. It is im- 
possible for a nude person to take the “ movement ” of 
one in costume. The.dress gives the action. It is quite 
true that the different costumes of different countries 
give different styles. The cast follows the costume. If 
the costume has style, so has the cast. Thus the women 
of Pont-l’Abbé, in the heart of Brittany, as they wash 
their linen, have the air of grand ladies compared with 
the washerwomen in the suburbs of Paris. 

You see, my dear friend that there is no necessity 
for my pupils compromising their womanly dignity, in 
order to become great artists; that, on the contrary, 
they will attain an exalted position in art, only by re- 


taining in its highest sense their womanhood. 


80 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


We know very well how to exercise judgment ig 
saying only what we ought to say. Why should we 
not possess the discrimination to represent only what we 
ought to represent ? 

It is precisely this reserve which will constitute the 
charm of our works, and which will make them success- 
ful also, for no door will be closed to them; there will 
not be a family where they will not be admired and 
wished for. 

At a time like the present, when liberty to do wrong 
seems to obtain favor, let us adhere to the privilege of 
doing well; it is better than the other. 

There may, perhaps, be some giddy young girls who 
will say, It is wearisome! The boys are free, but we 
are not. 

That is true, the girls are like white satin dresses, 
which are not free to display themselves in the street. 
Of what do they complain? That they have the best 
of the bargain, and that the bride is too pretty. 

M. E. ©, 


THE LAY FIGURE. 81 


TWELFTH LETTER. 


LESSON.—FACILITIES FOR LEARNING TO DRAW FROM 
NATURE, AND TO DRESS A LAY FIGURE, 


Srncr your daughters, my dear Julia, have already 
made upwards of two hundred drawings from memory, 
and have repeated them in a variety of proportions and 
at different intervals, since drawing from memory has 
become so familiar that they even attempt to represent 
what they have caught a glimpse of, we approach the 
goal—we are prepared to take up nature. 

Among the models of your series choose a lady’s hand. 
Let it be executed with lights and shades, and afterwards 
drawn from memory. 

These two drawings very carefully done, you will 
place your hand in the same position as the model, with 
the same lights thrown upon it, and your daughters will 
draw it, taking notice of the differences which exist be- 
tween your hand and the model they have just copied. 
Nothing more is necessary to seize and to render nature, 
for the skeleton is always the same, and that gives the 
movement. Then remain only the details of flesh more 
or less plump. 


This first drawing from nature will astonish you at 
4* 


82 DRA WING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


least as much as the first drawing from the model and 
from memory. 

From feet and hands, for we commence with those 
you will pass to figures which you will dress and adjust 
upon nature as upon the model. You will execute them 
in the same manner, but always after the drawing from 
memory. 

You will proceed thus with all the good engravings 
which you can reproduce from nature, entirely or in 
part; animals, flowers, fruits, furniture, all are adapted 
to exercise the eye, the mind and the hand. 

From these, you will return to your first models, and 
select those which your daughters have retained best 
—those which can be reproduced from nature. They 
will make this reproduction, and afterwards, execute 
them from memory. This reversed exercise will be one 
of real utility. 

Now, as your pupils trace nature so well through the 
gauze, as the outline has become fine and clear, you can 
teach them to trace shadows. Inanimate nature is 
preferable as a beginning, for the work is very difficult. 
The first drawings will be, as they usually are, mere 
scrawls; but little by little they will become excellent. 
This study should alternate with that from nature—one 
aids the other. (8.) 


It is now time either to borrow or purchase a lay figure 


THE LAY FIGURE. 83 


Your daughters will dress it in imitation of a costume 
taken from some ancient engraving. There is art and 
even pleasure in arranging the position and dress of a 
lay figure. You will find all the old goods of use, and 
that none of the cast-off articles from your toilette need 
be lost; ribbons, flowers, old waists, all these, with the 
aid of scissors and pins, may be made to assume any form 
you wish. 

The lay figure thus dressed, you trace the stuffs with 
the shadow, in order to study the form of the folds. The 
model being motionless, the pupil can execute leisurely. 

The pupil need draw only the outline of the face and 
hands of the lay figure. If, however, she can finish it 
from the engraving which has served as a model, I have 
not the least objection. 

This exercise is excellent. Itis important to give all 
attention to it, and continue it until worthy results are 
obtained. 

While waiting for the lay figure, you might throw 
drapery over a chair and let it be traced. Art and skill 
in the fold are very essential things. As your daughters 
have already studied it in the ancient engravings, as 
they have already drawn drapery from memory, they will 
now, in the execution of these tracings from nature, make 
rapid progress, and, like all my pupils, reap the fruit of 


their exactness and perseverance. 


84 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


If they esteem it great happiness to bring me their 
portfolios, I shall be no less happy to visit them. But 
above all, do not let them pass too quickly from one les- 
son to the other. I should readily notice it. 

Upon each lesson I send you, there are entire months 
of work. So Ido not use too much haste in writing you. 
I understand your impatience to see my letters arrive; 
to be familiar with the whole of my method. You fear 
I shall leave you in the lurch. Be assured, I could no 
more renounce this labor than the old friendship I 


cherish for you. 
M. E. CO. 


THIRTEENTH LETTER. 
OBSERVATIONS.—MODELS—PORTRAITS. 


I wisu, my dear Julia, to notice one advantage which 
we women possess over other artists. They are de- 
pendent upon models who make a business of posing, and 
who go from studio to studio. Thus they have almost 
always the same natures before them, and at the exposi- 
tions, one sees the same figures in the pictures of differ- 
ent painters. Those who do not live in Paris, experience 
another difficulty. They cannot procure models, You 


MODELS—PORTRAITS. 85 


will find some, although you live thirty leagues away 
from the Capital. 

I reside in Paris, and I have never studied position 
from what is called a model. I find models everywhere ; 
among the seamstresses, and other workwomen; they 
always prefer posing to working, 

Among the little unfortunate beggars, whom I en- 
counter; I can understand why a mother would not like 
to have her daughter pose as a model in an artist’s 
studio, but she leaves her with confidence here with the 
mother of a family. 

Finally we have our friends and their daughters, who 
certainly would not wish to pose before strangers. 

Our models are, therefore, much more varied, much 
more distingués than those of painters; I should say 
more natural, for we take them from real life, with their 
own style and gestures, while the professional models 
have almost always an artificial air. 

This leads me to speak of portraiture. 

There is not a more delicate art. A person who 
moves about, who speaks, does not exhibit imperfections 
like a mute, motionless picture. 

We always examine a portrait too closely. We 
notice it more in one day than the original in ten years. 

A portrait initiates the beholder in details he had 


never before observed. For example, we often hear a 


86 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


person say, when looking at a portrait: “It is a good 
likeness, but the nose is too short.” Then turning to 
the original, he adds: “ Why! I never observed you had 
so short a nose—but you have a very short nose; it is 
astonishing how short it is.” And if it is a young girl 
who sees the portrait of her intended, and she happens 
not to like very short noses, there is a matrimonial 
failure. 

Indeed, the majority of portraits render no other 
service than to hold up your imperfections to view. 
That is agreeable! You pay the painter, therefore, for 
thus betraying you! 

Observe the greatest precision in the contour of the 
head, in the manner in which it is placed upon the 
shoulders, and in its relation to the rest of the body. 
This is the first rule for the painter, the most impor- 
tant. It is so true that in the darkness you recognize 
by his profile a person who enters your house. You dis- 
tinguish him even by his back. 

The gauze gives this precision. 

Afterwards the line of the hair and the position of 
the features should be indicated without immediately 
attempting to express them. 

In order that the portrait shall not bring into prom- 
inence the imperfections of the face, they should in the 
first place be well understood. 


PORTRAITS. 87 


If the nose is too short and too far from the mouth, 
you lengthen it a little without touching the mouth, and 
the two defects are softened. If on the contrary, the 
nose is too long, you shorten it a little, always without 
touching the mouth, in order not to alter the division 
and contour of the face. It is highly necessary to avoid 
this, for we seldom fail to notice whether our acquaint- 
ances have leng or round faces. 

But you may enlarge the eye a little, and still preserve 
its form; contract the mouth somewhat through the ex- 
pression given to it, or rather by that one of its ex- 
pressions which you adopt. 

Always seek the beautiful in painting faces, and what- 
ever deformities they possess will become far less promi- 
nent, or will even disappear. 

Study the character of a head; try to discover what 
strikes us at first sight. 

There are persons who possess this faculty naturally, 
and they take likenesses before they know how to draw. 

I call that a good likeness which pleases our friends, 
leaving no room for our enemies to say, “ [t flatters!”” And 
this is no easy achievement. How many good portrait 
painters are there—that is, painters who combine real talent 
with the art of producing a good likeness? Very few. 

Often a simple sketch is a better likeness than a portrait. 


Do you know the color of all your friends’ eyes? 


88 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


Certainly not. Ifa painter whose profession it is to 
observe, has the misfortune to lose his wife, he can rarely 
paint her portrait from memory. It results from the 
fact that we notice our immediate acquaintances very 
slightly. Hence this question arises, Is it necessary that 
the portrait painter should show us more than we have 
been accustomed to observe ? 

Examine the portraits painted from photographs ; not 
one in a hundred is endurable. Why is it so? I 
have seen the Boulevard Montmartre reproduced by the 
same process. Jam thoroughly acquainted with it, for 
I was born there. Indeed, I should not have recognized 
it. And why is it? Because it is not regularity of 
feature which impresses and charms us, but the tout 
ensemble—the expression of the face; for every one has a 
physiognomy which strikes us at first sight, and which a 
machine can never render. In painting, and above all, 
in portraiture, it is the spirit which speaks to the spirit, 
not science to science. It is then the spiritual which 
must be understood and rendered in the person or object 
drawn. Now, this spiritual has a thousand different 
faces, There are as many expressions as sentiments, It 
isa great and wonderful work of God, the formation of so 
many different faces with a nose, a mouth and two eyes. 
For, who of us has not a hundred countenances? Will 


my portrait of this morning be that of this evening, or 


PORTRAITS. 8S 


to-morrow? Nothing repeats itself,each instant brings 
a new expression. 

From the preceding, should I infer that, in order to 
paint a portrait, one must be either very wise or very 
ignorant ? 

I shall be accused of speaking paradoxically, but I 
will explain myself. 

An ignorant person notices very little in a face; he 
sees the essential, that is, aside from the harmony of the 
features, that individuality which prevents us from mis- 
taking one person for another. 

He renders it naturally easily; with no attempt at 
coloring or style, he blunders into the truth, He makesa 
guard-house portrait, as they say, but it isa good likeness, 

When one emerges from this ignorance, and begins to 
understand the face somewhat, he is in the condition of 
those persons who, having read medical books, imagine 
they have all the diseases therein described. He has a 
half science which enables him to see, but falsely, and 
he affects wisdom at the expense of the unfortunate ones 
who have confided their faces to his care. In fine he 
knows too much to be naive through ignorance, and too 
little to attain simplicity through science, while superior 
talent may preserve naturalness in color and drawing. 
Not only are their portraits good likenesses, but they are 
works of art which posterity will preserve. 


$0 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


Certainly my paradox is true, as is also the friend- 


ship I bear you. | 
M. E. C. 


FOURTEENTH LETTER. 


OBSERVATIONS.—FEMALE ARTISTS,—POINT OF VIEW, 
PERSPECTIVE, 


You write me, my dear Julia, that handsome M. L— 
said to you yesterday that you were wrong in bestowing 
so much talent upon your daughters; that men do not 
usually like lady artists, etc. There is some truth in 
that; but you might have replied that ladies do not 
usually like pretty boys. Why is it that a talent, a 
gift, injures those who possessit? For this reason: A 
man, if handsome, is usually effeminate, and loses his 
manhood ; a woman, very often, when she is an artist, 
becomes a man on a small scale, and ceases to be wholly 
a woman. Hach is unnatural. Men do not know how 
to render their beauty acceptable, nor women their 
science. They are too much enamored of themselves 
for any one to attempt competition with them. 

Your daughters are too well trained to part with their 
good manners. 


As talent enlarges, modesty will increase; for no rep- 


FEMALE ARTISTS. 91 


resentation of nature can equal nature herself; the love 
of order will assume firmer control, for the precision I 
have constantly enjoined, naturally precludes all disorder, 
In everything, disorder is a loss of time which no true 
artist can desire. You should see the studios of the 
painters, whose fame has reached your ears! They are 
models of neatness and taste, all their surroundings are 
symmetrically arranged, and they like this system, this 
elegance in their toilettes, their wives and their 
children. 

Why, then, should a lady artist lose the qualities 
of her sex, when she sees them regarded by an artist 
as among the necessities of his art ? 

This is, therefore, a prejudice which will become ex- 
tinct with those who proscribe the blue-stocking, when 
women shall retain their womanhood in authorship as in 
music, 

It is not their talent which is disliked, it is the absence 
of those qualities which belong specially to them ; and 
they are criticised so much the more keenly when dis- 
tinguished by talents of a superior order. 

The defects of the obscure woman are ignored ; those 
of the celebrated woman come into notice with herself, 
Talent is like rank; it places one under obligation. 

But to return to our art. You ask the meaning of those 


lines placed upon several of your models, and inclining 


92 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


toward the same point. (9.) That point is the point of 
view. Nothing is more useful for the correct observation 
of the rules of perspective ; that is, the disposition of the 
various objects and giving them their proper proportions, 
As seen in your models, sometimes the point of view isin 
the picture, sometimes out of the picture; again it is ac- 
cidental, when an object, a chair for instance, is placed 
outside the general perspective of the picture. 

When your daughters have traced with the gauze a 
home scene, or a house in the country, they will only need 
seek the point of view, and they will find their tracing 
gives it exactly. 

The perspective is thus easily found without a master. 
But I repeat that it is necessary to sit very low, upon a 
footstool, in order to make the point of view acceptable. 
There are certain modes of taking it which are not cor- 
rect, and the picture is made to please, not to instruct. 
Besides, the spectator always having the picture hung on 
a level with his eye, it is very natural that the artist 
should take this point of view. 

When your daughters wish to introduce several per- 
sons in the home scene which they have traced, in order to 
gain a better idea of the perspective of the figures, they 
will have a model pose successively at all the differ- 
ent distances behind the guaze, and the tracings they 


make from it will give them the exact proportions to be ob. 


eta - 


PERSPECTIVE. 93 


served. Thus, immediately, the perspective of the back- 
ground and of the figures will be in complete harmony. 

This harmony is a prime necessity, especially in land- 
scapes, where the figures not being in proportion the 
effect of distance is lost. 

By drawing a line from the point of view to the feet of 
the figure in the foreground, and another line from the 
same point to the head of the same figure, one may de- 
termine the proportions of all the figures between these 
two lines. 

And for the rest, experience teaches me every day 
that when a pupil has become familiar with tracing 
through the gauze she learns to discern the perspective 
and put everything in its place, as it were by instinct. 
The point of view, with all its lines, delineates itself 
before them. Like M. Jourdain, who for sixty years 
talked prose without knowing it, your daughters will one 
day be astonished at hearing the learned precepts given 
in teaching perspective, that science which they are ac- 
quiring without being aware of it, and which they will 
put in practice as the nightingale sings without learning 
the notes. 

If, in the future they are not satisfied with doing well 
under my instructions, if they must have further explana- 
tions and are desirous to become learned, they are free 
to do so. 


94 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


There are persons who, after having eaten and di 
gested well for thirty years, awaken some morning with 
the desire to know the structure of the stomach and how 
it operates. ‘Their digestion will be no better for it. 

It is an excellent trait in woman not to attempt the 
thorough comprehension of all things, and if it were not 
an instinct with her it would be great wisdom. 

The how and the why sometimes disenchant the 
most beautiful objects, distort the noblest sentiments, and 
obscure the simplest truths. 

May your daughters never need to ask why and to 
what extent they are loved. Many things must remain 
mysteries to us, aside from my prattle about the arts, 
which I close here with these words: Work, persevere, 
and do not belie the proverb, that “a woman must have 


her way.”—Ce que femme veut Dieu le veut. 
M. E. O. 


FIFTEENTH LETTER. 
COMPOSITION. 


Wuart say you, my dear Julia, you are not yet weary 
of my prattle upon art? How noble and beautiful is 
friendship! Love would say: Let us pass on to some: 


thing else. 


COMPOSITION. 95 


You ask for two words more upon composition. 

I notice with pleasure, good and tender mother, 
that you prefer my advice to that of M. the Count C—, 
and that you wish to render your MAUR ee indeper- 
dent by giving them true talent. 

You will thus defend them against reverses. Beauty 
and talent are two things which socialists cannot share 
with us. 

Mary, you say, reads history and attempts compo- 
sition upon subjects which attract her. This course is 
not a safe one; it has sometimes made shipwreck of 
splendid genius. 

How many artists of our own day, in attempting sub- 
jects suited to governmental purchase, or in executing 
those assigned them, have lost their reputation! They 
have attempted something beyond their ability. 

Is a work begun at the ending? What would you 
think of an architect who should travel in search of 
models for doors and casements of an extraordinary 
form, without having the least idea of the building 
he wishes to construct, or of the ground upon which it 
is to be located? Well, that is just what Mary, yoar 
painter, is doing. 

As to Eliza, your sculptor, I must compliment her 
upon her collections of shells, butterflies, birds, and 


insects; with her, I admire her lizards, serpents, and 


96 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


even her toads. What treasures for her compositions! 
Eliza is in the right. I should advise her now to make 
a collection of flowers also, studying them with the 
magnifying glass, even to their minutest details, dissect- 
ing them and making drawings of each separate piece. 
This will prove wealth of another kind, which like 
the ant, she stores up in summer for the winter’s use. 
A provident architect, she collects materials wherewith 
to construct her edifices; for time-pieces, vases, jewels, 
are little edifices of grace and beauty. An intelligent 
architect, she draws inspiration from nature, that un- 
equalled instructor. By-and-by she will search myth- 
ology and history for names suited to her compo- 
sitions if inclined to do so, always remembering how- 
ever, that a woman is not young because she is called 
Heébé, but because she has a youthful form. The title 
does not make the work. The work itself creates its 
own title. How many artists are like goats, which, 
when fastened by a cord to a stake, begin at once even 
at the risk of strangling, to browze upon whatever is re- 
mote and difficult to obtain! It is wiser to begin with 
that within our reach, with the most simple, the 
easiest. Eliza does so, and she will succeed. This 
germ, simplicity, creates style, and style comes like 
everything else in nature, unconsciously. One little 


grain in the mind, and it is all there. 


COMPOSITION. 97 


This little grain your daughters possess; drawing 
from memory has inspired them. They wish to create, 
one in sculpture, the other in painting. 

Since you desire it, I will mention some of my prin- 
ciples in composition. Proceed in order. 

Eliza wishes to make a chalice, for instance. She 
seeks at first an agreeable outline without occupying 
herself with details. 

Shall the chalice be larger at the top or at the base? 

How shall it be? She makes a variety of experi- 
ments. The smallest section of a flower may give 
her some idea. 

Her first form chosen, she reflects upon the elegance 
she shall bestow upon each part. What shall the chalice 
be? A beautiful shell, a bell of flowers contest the ground. 
And now comes the base. The branches of trees, the 
feet of animals, animals themselves, children, etc., all im- 
mediately suggest themselves as supports for the chalice. 
She borrows nothing from what has been already made ; 
all is the emanation of her own memory, and what is not 
suggested to day will come to-morrow; this is inevita- 
ble, with patience and will. 

Mary should proceed in the same way ; she should seek 
inspiration through her eyes and not from her mind 
study nature and not books. 


Mary who wishes to make a picture, will begin by 
i) 


98 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


seeking for the picture. Now, the picture is the back- 
ground. The figures are a group which you introduce. 

The sculptor is not placed under this necessity; his 
statue finished, he places it where he wishes. If he make 
a bowl, all he needs is a handful of earth, while, with the 
pencil of the delineator, half the bowl] must advance, and 
the other half recede; thatis, he must at the same time, 
make a projection and a depression upon the paper. 
Projections and depressions ; that is the substance of 
drawing. It is a continual combination, the difficul- 
ties of which are great enough without creating new 
ones. 

Mary will first attempt her picture without figures. 
Let us suppose she chooses the corner of a room, well ex- 
posed, or, in other words, reflecting fine masses of light 
and shade. She brings forward her lay figure, suitably 
dressed, and places it in a very simple attitude; for 
example, that of a person reading. In order that the 
subject may be striking, the strongest light should fall 
upon the figure and upon the book. The person is placed 
so as to make a happy composition, that is, a well bal- 
anced one. If not naturally so, it may be balanced by 
any suitable object, one which is appropriate and has 
not the appearance of having fallen from the sky, ex- 
pressly to maintain a counterpoise. 


Mary has a collection of old engravings; she may 


COMPOSITION. 99 


consult those which relate to the subject she has chosen, 
or better still, she may make from them a living picture; 
that is, she may represent them in nature. This isa 
charming recreation which [ advise you to repeat from 
several engravings. How many things you will thus 
learn! The engraving is black, but the living picture 
is necessarily colored. The pupil then begins to learn the 
value of colors as well as their effect. 

She will see that there are tones which recede and 
others which advance, some tones and some fabrics which 
receive the light much more freely than others. She be- 
comes a colorist before she is aware of it. 

This is, then, excellent instruction for composition ; 
in a good picture, there is a reason for everything, nothing 
18 introduced by chance. The most unobserved object, 
_ that which seems most insignificant to the spectator, is 
sometimes so necessary that, if it were taken away, the 
picture would in great measure lose its effect, nor even 
would the composition be well balanced; for often a 
book, a handkerchief, a basket, thrown down as by 
chance, balances a person or even an entire composition. 

The engraving reproduced in nature, has other 
advantages, which I leave you to discover for yourself as 
you follow your pupil. | 

For the rest, it is somewhat in this way that the 
eelebrated Vaucanson taught himself; he took a clock to 


100 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


pieces to study its mechanism, and put it together again 
by looking at another which served him as a model. 

By thus drawing inspiration from the works of the 
masters, Mary will at length succeed in composing en- 
tirely alone, what I should call a living picture; the 
Reading, for instance, which I have mentioned above. 

Let us see how she will execute it. 

She will place herself before this picture, at a distance 
triple the height of her figure, and seating herself upon a 
footstool, she will endeavor to make her composition come 
within the limits of her gauze, by closing one eye. The 
isolation she thus gives her picture, will make its defects 
more palpable, and enable her to improve them. When 
she is satisfied with the adjustment, she will trace it with 
the charcoal upon the gauze, in all its details, in order 
that everything may be well proportioned. From the 
gauze, she will transfer it to a paper stretched upon paste- 
board, putting the whole perfectly square. The point of 
view obtained, starting from this point she will go over 
all the lines with arule and crayon; she will previously 
have traced the perpendiculars and horizontals, as they ° 
are regularly formed with a square sheet of paper folded 
in four. The architecture thus designed, she will now 
pass the crayon over all the rest of the drawing. 

When she has secured her composition, constructed it 


thoroughly with the crayon, she will go over the whole 


COMPOSITION. 101 


with the mezzotint tone in charcoal, and then she will 
take up the strongest shades. She will be familiar with 
the value of the shading, she will know that the darkest 
are always light, if she takes care to put a piece of 
black velvet over the foreground. 

Nothing now remains but to relieve the lights, which - 
is done with a piece of bread, beginning with the most 
luminous point of the picture, for it is simply a picture, 
which she has just made. The whole should attract 
at first sight. Mary is free to caress it afterwards, to 
improve it, always, however, without altering the masses. 

In the course of time she will risk the addition of one 
or two figures, but without effort, above all avoiding pre- 
tensions in painting, and seeking the form, that which 
pleases the eye. 

A number of figures should be grouped so as to form 
a harmonious and well-balanced whole. 

You must have observed that whatever the shape 
of compositions they have a unity, that they present a 
whole to the eye. 

The figures form a mass, and gaps are avoided, Gaps 
are the spaces between the figures which it is very diffi- 
cult to fill with the background. This is why the artist 
takes pains with them in composing. 

Light, also, possesses form which makes a mass. 


Sometimes it is a garland, sometimes it rolls like thun- 


102 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


der from one corner of the picture to another, and it 
often serves even to balance the composition. The man- 
ner of lighting up a figure, may render the movement 
true or false, appropriate or unsightly. 

You must now understand, what I have said above; 
that it is easier to find a subject for a well adjusted scene 
from nature, than to arrange the scene from a subject 
found in a book. Asa proof of this, we never find a 
notice behind the pictures of the old masters, and we 
discover in them two subjects oftener than one, Deeds, 
actions, are to be represented, not narrations. I remem- 
ber a notice thus worded: “The artist has chosen the 
moment when the saint offers his soul, full of love, to 
God.” It were thoughtful thus to apprise the public, 
since neither soul, love, nor God were visible. 

Composing a picture is not creating a strange, fantasti- 
cal thing. It is, on the contrary, a representation of 
something which exists, or has existed. The one which 
most nearly approaches truth, is the most successful. 
An unnatural creation is a monstrosity. 

A strong-minded person said to me one day, “If 
Jesus Christ had truly been God, he would have taken 
another form than that of man, to come upon earth.” 
“Since he has taken this form,” I responded, “ it is be- 
cause he knows your nature better than you know it 


yourself. He knew that a being not classed in your 


COMPOSITION—ORIGINALITY. 103 


catalogue would be denominated a monster.” Kvery- 
thing represented out of nature has the same effect. 

I once heard a painter say: “I am about painting a 
very original picture. I have an entirely new subject.” 
What an error! It is the talent which must be original, 
not the object represented. An original talent is one 
which resembles no other talent. It may execute the 
most commonplace compositions, but it will always be 
original, It is the manner of first beholding and after- 
wards executing, which is peculiar to you. Can anything 
be more trite than a cavalier with his horse? Yet, exe- 
cuted by a great artist, this would be a very original 
subject. 

Must originality then be sought? Certainly not; as I 
have already said, all should be trusted to the guidance 
of one’s own genius. Recall my comparison, a little as- 
_ piring, perhaps, of the river and the canal. Every artist 
errs when he pursues a path different from the one 
nature has marked out; so he rarely grows under hot- 
house culture. Unfortunately the talent, the success of 
cotemporaries occupy too much his attention, and cause 
him too much anxiety. 

The great geniuses of this world are like trees and 
flowers, which, far from destroying each other, are of 
mutual benefit. Does the rose injure the carnation, or 


the oak the linden? If the rose were to borrow the 


104 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


foliage of the carnation, original as it is, what would be 
gained? Yet how many artists borrow certain qualities 
from their rivals, thereby destroying the characteristics 
of their own talent! Be yourself, and seek improvement 
without ceasing to be yourself, and you will do well. 

Shall I make you laugh a little? Suppose a woman 
with an aquiline nose should affect the manners of one 
with a turned-up nose, she would be perfectly ridiculous. 
With the latter one can say many things which are im- 
possible with an aquiline nose. 

And how many noses there are which never ought to 
waltz? For (I do not know that you are like myself) 
when my friends waltz, I perceive the true form of their 
noses. These noses in turning and returning complais- 
antly in all directions present most grotesque appear- 
ances. How I laughed one evening with Ambroisine at 
a waltz of noses! If Cham could have transferred my 
impressions, what an amusing album he would have 
made ! 

With this I embrace you as closely as a nose retroussé 


can embrace an aquiline. 
M. E. C. 


STUDY OF THE GAUZE. 104 


SIXTEENTH LETTER. 


LESSONS UPON THE UTILITY OF THE TRACED PROOF 
—STUDY OF THE GAUZE—THE CAST—MODE OF 
SHADING WITH THE CRAYON, 


I announcr, my dear Julia, the fourth edition of 
“Drawing Without a Master.” Since, with the permis- 
sion of the mayor, you are very desirous of teaching 
drawing to the children of your parish, this new edition 
is the best. For this reason; in opening a course of Jes- 
sons in the month of November, 1850, I wished to ex- 
periment upon my method with a large number of 
pupils; as much to introduce all possible improvements 
as to give to the public positive results. 

The results exceeded all my expectations. Out of 
seventy pupils only two were unable to make the draw- 
ing from memory the first day, and made that attain- 
ment only after two or three months of study. 

I have the certainty, then, that out of thirty-five 
pupils, thirty-four possess eye memory—a faculty, which, 
until the present time, has been held of little value in 
giving instruction, yet from which so great an advantage 
may be drawn. 

All the artists who have examined the drawings I 


have obtained day after day from my little girls, are 
5* 


106 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


convinced that with my method months are equivalent 


to years with the ancient system. 


THE TRACED PROOF. 


These are the improvements which practice has sug- 
gested, and which I cannot too strongly recommend to you, 
as well as to the heads of all institutions and schools. 

The transparent paper is preferable to the gauze for 
making the proof, which must serve as a professor. To 
secure all the fine points of the model, the proof should 
be made with a lead pencil. With the gauze, the pupils 
may deceive, either by making the impression upon the 
paper, or marking through the errors committed. 

The transparent paper is free from this inconvenience. 

When, like yourself, my dear Julia, a mother is the 
instructor of her own daughters, her surveillance suffices, 
but with a large number of pupils the master’s eye may 
be deceived. It so happened with me, and I lost no 
time in replacing the gauze by the transparent paper. 
As you will see, its office is much more simple. 

You will understand that my present remarks refer 
to the traced proof made from engravings. 

The pupil will place the proof over the white paper 
so that they shall be even. She will then fasten them 
at the top upon her board, also evenly, with two paper 


STUDY OF THE GAUZE. 107 


tacks. (10.) The proof and the white paper thus secured 
she will indicate the starting point of the drawing by 
puncturing the transparent paper so that it shall leave 
an impression upon the white paper. She will then only 
need to lift the proof up from the bottom to copy her 
model, starting from the puncture, and she will lower it 
whenever she wishes to correct it. Sometimes it is more 
convenient to fasten the proof at the side, in order to 
turn it from left to right. 

When several pupils are thus installed in a studio, 
the spectacle is a very curious one. While copying, you 
would say they were working at a trade, but when the 
copy is finished and they begin to draw from memory, 
a ray of intelligence illumines all their young faces. 
Already the artist stands revealed. It is necessary 
to be very exacting as to the purity of the proof, and 
it depends upon the pupil to make for herself a good 
one. Do not forget that upon the transparent paper the 
tracing is finer and consequently more exact, ‘To con- 
vince my pupils of the importance which attaches to this, 
I have in my studio a collection of proofs which have 


secured very excellent results. 


STUDY OF THE GAUZE. 


None but pupils who are accustomed to trace 


from nature can correctly trace outlines from a shaded 


2 
wv 


108 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


engraving. For this reason I wish my pupils to trace 
frequently from nature, from the beginning to the end 
of their sessions, 

Commencing, as I have mentioned elsewhere, with 
motionless objects, such as furniture, vases, casts, fruit, 
flowers, etc., I compel them to study nature, and this 
leads them to understand the art of the masters they 
copy, either in foreshortenings or any other difficulty. 
They no longer copy with the hand alone but with the 
intellect. Every outline they make has its significance. 

The study of the gauze is full of interest. Pupils are 
very far from possessing the same proclivity for this ex- 
ercise, which is generally very difficult; but the results 
are none the less wonderful. Notice the traced proofs 
which I have had lithographed at the close of my first 
series of models. Some of them are the work of children 
of eleven years of age; part of them after three, others 
after six months’ study. I ask, my dear friend, how one 
can err with such professors! It is nature herself; and 
Raphael has reproduced her no better. 

And if the pupil traces the portrait, she attains still 
greater skill, for tracing from the cast is not only much 
easier, but conveys more instruction. 

You will see this by casting your eyes upon the traced 
professors of my second series of models. The pupil 


exhausts all the profiles; all the aspects of a head, hand 


OF THE CAST. 109 


aud foot. She thus renders an exact account of their 
forms and their connection with the neck or limbs. I 
have been accused of teaching only the processes—the 
mechanical part of art. What an error! TI cast aside 
old rubrics, and I frankly briug the pupil to an encoun- 
ter with nature herself. 

Incontestably, heads, feet and hands, include the great- 
est difficulties of drawing. If, after three or four months 
of study, you give your pupils an entire figure to copy, 
the extremities are always the most deficient parts. It 
is well, therefore, sometimes to condemn them to fifteen 
days of feet and hands. They will make faces as though 
they were put on bread and water for fifteen days, but 
success will soon console them. When a pupil can draw 
a hand she is already very skilful; she has acquired 


much experience in foreshortenings. 


OF THE CAST, 


In schools, the cast offers one great advantage; a 
single one serves for several pupils at the same time. 
They place themselves around it at the height and 
distance indicated in my eighth letter, seated as before 
the drawing models with their transparent paper, upon 
which is traced the proof, and which they can put down 


upon their drawing to correct it. 


110 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


Although the first proofs may be lithographs, it is 
well for the pupil to make them herself previously through 
the gauze. She will thereby only become better acquaint 
ed with her professor, (11.) 

A single gauze will suffice for several pupils, provided 
you are systematic in your work. When seated around 
the cast, each at her point of view, they take their turn 
in tracing through the gauze. Meanwhile some make 
pages of shading or capital letters, others reproduce from 
memory what they have drawn the previous day. 

Thus no time is lost, each awaits her turn patiently 
and in perfect silence, for the study of drawing imposes 
silence. The proofs finished, all the pupils take up 
drawing from the cast, correcting their errors with 
the proof; then the cast and drawing are taken away, 
and it is left for memory to reproduce what the hand has 
already traced, but which the eye no lorger sees. 

Good proofs from the best pupils will serve very well 
for others. In my ninth letter I mentioned the process 
of transferring the tracing from the gauze to the white 
paper. It is there retained by a well-known process, 
The pupil, upon his transparent paper, makes a new tra- 
cing which becomes his professor before the same cast and 
in the same position, 

Thus the head of the class has all her professors in her 
portfolio. Every day increases her collection. It is a 


OF THE CAST. . 111 


species of mutual instruction which I have practiced in 
my studio with great success. 

When the pupil uses the gauze as a professor, she 
traces then, in beginning her drawing, a cross which is 
naturally transferred to the white paper. The two crosses 
carefully placed one upon the other, how simple and how 
exact the corrections will be! Could they be more so? 

If the pupil wishes to enlarge her proof, she retraces 
not upon the gauze, but upon a pane of glass, enclosed in 
a frame of the same dimensions, in order that it may be 
placed upon the same stand, and take the place of the 
gauze. The glass should be glazed over with a coating 
of gum water, which is allowed to dry. Thus prepared, 
it receives perfectly the drawing of the lithographic pen- 
cil, which imparts more sharpness than the crayon, 

The glass may be filled with tracings. It is well even 
to have several glasses covered with good tracings, in 
order to be able to devote an entire session to enlarge- 
ments. Experience increases interest. I have explained 
the manner of enlarging in my second edition, last letter. 

The proofs thus enlarged, should like the others, be 
fastened upon paper and carefully preserved by the heads 
of the school. They answer as professors for all their 
pupils. I call those good proofs which are perfect, 
The most inexperienced eye can tell immediately a good 


proof frem a poor one. Neither do the pupils deceive 


Lig DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


themselves; they are generally severe in the choice of 
those adopted as their proof-professors. 

This leads me to add that you must distrust the 
gauze, which is not so reliable an authority, I might 
almost say person, as one would suppose. 

If it is not well placed before the model, there is no 
precision in the outlines; on the contrary, the drawing 
is awkward and resembles nothing. Observe carefully 
and with your own eyes, that is compare the results with 
the models and ask yourself the reason for the differences, 
If a hand or an arm is suspended too high or too low, if 
the pupil is seated too near or too far from the object, 
if the gauze is not placed directly in front of the model, 


it effects errors in lines, foreshortenings and positions 


’ which make one’s hair stand on end. 


Place a pupil before a piece of furniture; she will see 
that when the lines of the frame of the gauze do not coin- 
cide with those of the furniture, the perpendiculars incline 
to the right or left, the horizontals rise or descend in such 
a manner as to give an entirely different point of view. 

Whoever is familiar with the gauze, not only will 
avoid these faults, but will conquer finally the greatest 
difficulties in art. With it, one can make true frescoes, 
that is, figures which sustain themselves in air, and not - 
those which must apparently fall upon the head if they 
should suddenly be endowed with life. 


SHADING WITH CHARCOAL 113 


SHADING WITH THE CHARCOAL. 


One word now, dear friend, upon the improvements 
which experience has taught me in the method of shading 
with charcoal; nothing is more simple; the charcoal is 
rubbed upon the paper with the finger precisely like pas- 
tel. With the finger alone one is able to model. Give 
at first to all the strongest parts their proper value ; 
lighten with a white stump or with your finger the por- 
tions which are too dense, thus making them a half 
tint, and extend this half tint everywhere, so that you 
may afterwards take out the lights with a crumb of 
bread; that is the whole secret. 

When pupils shade from the cast or from nature, it is — 
highly important not to permit them to shade anything 
whatever, without joining thereto the background, no 
matter what it may be. It should be copied very pre- 
cisely. Indeed, nothing in nature exists without a back- 
ground, It is giving the pupil a false education to 
allow drawing upon a background of white paper, when 
behind her model she sees an entirely different one, dark 
or light with varied tints. The harmony and the dif 
ferences existing between the background and the object 
drawn, give the latter a body, atmosphere, space, and pres 
vent it from looking as though riveted upon the paper. 


114 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER, 


It will cost the pupil no more, immediately to adopt 
the habit of combining the background and the object 
‘drawn. On the contrary, they furnish mutualaid. But 
how shall we avoid losing the outline in shading simul- 
taneously, the background and the object ? 

In order to model boldly with no fear of losing the 
outline, it is always preserved upon the gauze, in order 
that, if it should be effaced, it may be restored by placing 
the gauze upon the drawing. You know whatever is 
drawn upon the gauze may easily be transferred to the 
paper beneath it. They should avoid undertaking at the 
same time, both sides of the object they are drawing, in 
order not to lose all its outline, and to preserve some 
marking points which may aid to adjust the gauze and to 
reéstablish the outline. | 

Thus the pupils will acquire incredible boldness in 
modeling. The fear of losing the exact outline, as we 
have seen, will no longer render them timid in modeling. 
They will become like the great masters to whom draw- 
ing from memory has given at once correctness of eye, 
and firmness of hand, It will not do, however, to require 
too much of beginners. The essential thing is, not to 
allow them to become accustomed to a false outline 
which corrupts the eye; this is not to be feared with my 
method, so long as they have nature before them. It is 


only in drawing from memory, they may be deceived. 


SHADING WITH CHARCOAL, 115 


Happily they are always conscious of what they do, 
and always pass severe judgment upon their drawings 
from memory. They know where it is at fault, and this 
proves that the glance of the eye is already correct before 


science is acquired. 


Another Method of Shading with Charcoal. 


When the pupil undertakes to copy an entire engrav- 
ing, here is a process by which she may execute this 
copy in a short time. 

After putting the charcoal lightly over the whole 
sheet, holding it almost flat upon the paper so that it may 
not make wrinkles, the pupil must rub it with her finger 
or with a bit of woolen, until an equal tone is attained. 

This tone should be about the value of a half tint. 

Thus spread over the whole surface of the portion to 
be shaded, the pupil draws the outline of his model upon 
this halftint. But to prevent the hand from removing it 
in drawing, the pupil previously draws the outline upon 
the gauze, then transfers it upon the half tint, just as 
upon white paper. 

The outline and half tint thus put upon paper, the 
pupil takes a crumb of hard bread and takes out the 
lights very carefully, not omitting a single one. 


116 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


The drawing thus executed has already a very in 
teresting aspect, for in a moment the pupil discovers an 
important thing; that the light is rare and the half tint 
is the dominant one in the art of making a picture. 

She then takes the fixative mentioned at the close of 
this letter. 

She spreads it on the back of the picture with a 
brush, so that the paper is entirely covered with it on 
the wrong side of the drawing, of course. 

To prevent the drawing from touching anything 
during this operation, the pupil should have it held by 
the two corners, lowering always the sheet on the side 
where the fixative has flowed. But little should be 
put on at a time. 

It is well to hang the drawing afterwards on a cur- 
tain, in order that it may dry without touching the wall. 

There you have the outline, the light, and the half tint 
fixed irrevocably when the paper is dry. It is then the 
pupil retouches the shades with the crayon, always rub- 
bing with the finger as vigorously as she pleases. 

All depends upon the charcoal crayon and the paper 
in order that the fixative may adhere and the charcoal 
become very black. 

The pupil should try her paper and her charcoal. 
Save the soft ones for the background, the hard ones for 
outlining, and the blackest for shading. 


DRAWING FROM MEMORY. 11% 


Experience alone can guide her. She must make 
and remake unweariedly. 

For I can confidently assert that with this process 
crayon drawings will finally reach such perfection as to 
be as clear as photographs. 

The shaded series from the great masters, executed 
thus by pupils, sell for parlor ornaments, Many persons 
prefer them to painted copies of the great masters. 

Pupils will thus make portraits as delicate in finish 
and complete in resemblance as photographs. But they 
combine expression and life as only the human hand 


and the eye can give it. 


DRAWING FROM MEMORY. 


When your pupils draw from memory, show them 
the model from time to time, in order to render them 
very conscientious in their execution, and then, when 
they draw alone, they will be in the right path. 

Teach them the first principles of beauty ; that be- 
tween the two eyes, for instance, there is a space equal 
to the size of the eye; eyes too widely separated give 
an unintelligent air; the eyes of cattle are placed thus; 
in monkeys, on the contrary, they are too near; that the 
lower part of the ear should be ona level with the lower 


part of the nose, but placed higher it may still be beau- 


118 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


tiful; that there should be the same distance be- 
tween the hair and the eyes, as between the eyes and the 
lower part of the nose, between the lower part of the 
nose and the chin; that the mouth should be near the 
nose. 

Teach them to observe, in order to place the mouth 
properly beneath the nose, how the two little lines are 
framed which descend from the nose to the upper lip. 

For the rest, when they draw after the cast, they 
should trace separately the eyes, mouth, and the lower 
part of the nose, together with the mouth, also the ears. 

The pupil may place herself as near as she wishes for 
this species of exercise, in order to make her drawing 
larger and to become acquainted with all the details and 
all the profiles of an eye; a mouth with the portion 
under the nose; an ear, just as she knows all the profiles 
of a head and its position upon the neck ; that a little 
head and a straight neck are always in harmony with the 
beautiful; this they will see in the models of the third 
outline series, in drawing antique statues, of which I 
have made a suitable selection. 

There they will learn the proportions of beauty by 
being made to count how many times the height of the 
head is contained in the length of the body. 

There are books where all these things are mentioned 


again and again; but is it not better for the pupils them- 


DRAWING FROM MEMORY. 119 


selves to take a compass and compose the proportions 
from the antique statues and from the masters? For 
example, in taking the measure of the forearm, and com- 
paring it with the other part of the arm, they will be 
convinced it is the same. They will see afterwards 
where the elbow ought to be in relation to the body, and 
compare likewise the leg and its height. 

From all these comparisons they will find many 
measures are the same. 

This is a most interesting task to perform upon the 
magnificent models of our method, which are all executed 
from the masters and the antiques. 

The pupil in seeking to render herself familiar with 
the proportions of the beautiful, engraves them, as it 
were, in her mind. 

Thus with a proof made from an antique, she will be 
able to draw lines from all the points. For example, 
from the small of the arm to the point of the shoulder, 
then she will put a dot at each measure. 

She will then trace her figure with nothing but the 
lines and points, and if she has taken the measures well 
from those portions of the body which bend, she will see 
and understand the movement. — 

Thus has often been made a caricature of two men 
who fight with swords, which almost all children have 
reproduced. 


120 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


She will, in the same way, take all these points and 
lines from the face for the outlines of the countenance. 
This little task, with the compass, should be done in the 
evening. It is a great diversion. 

When the pupils discover that the masters have 
deviated from the rule of beauty, they will understand 
that nature herself often deviates. 

It is well to know the principles of the beautiful 
taken from the antique, but it will not do to abuse them. 
For this leads to a conventional style of painting, in a 
word, to the school of David, of which I have already 
spoken to your daughters, in the third part of “ Drawing 
without a Master,” sixth letter, in an appreciation of the 
talent of Ingres, Horace Vernet, and Hugéne Delacroix, 
published in the journal “ L’ Ane Savant.” 

I have still so much to write upon art! Hugene 
Delacroix was right when he said to me, ‘ Books will be 
made with your book if you do not undertake it your- 
self.” Therefore I continue it in that journal, in order 
to converse with my pupils, who are scattered in the 
four quarters of the globe. 

More than two thousand have already responded to 
the appeal of this journal. Yousee that encouragements 
are not wanting. 

You will like, my dear Julia, to follow the progress 
of the young girls, of the School of the Sisters. © 


FIXING THE CHARCOAL. 121 


The more numerous they are, the more you will ap- 
preciate the value of my lessons. You have, as is quite 
natural, attributed the happy results you have secured to 
your daughters’ superior talent. Your ideas will change, 
however, and you will soon be convinced, by your new 
experience, that everybody can learn to draw as one learns 
to speak his language. It is as simple; and very nearly 
approaches the genius which creates new forms, ele- 
gant and chaste architectural ornaments, designs for 
fabrics, costumes, furniture, vases, etc., and the produc- 
tions of the art will finally bear the impress of our man- 


ners and habits. 
M. E. O. 


P. §.—METHOD OF SECURING OR FIXING THE CHAR- 
COAL. 


The charcoal is secured upon the paper by means of 
a very simple preparation. Put half an ounce of white 
shellac in three-fourths of a pint of alcohol, cork it well, 
and let it dissolve for two days. With a little sponge, 
spread this preparation upon the back of the drawing, 
letting another person hold the sheet horizontally. 


6 


122 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER, 


SEVENTEENTH LETTER, 


EXPRESSION, 


You must know, my dear Julia, that the gauze is no 
more a modern invention than the glass. Leonardo da 
Vinci, in one of his letters, speaks of it under the name 
of stracct. Perugino, Raphael, and many others, among 
the old masters, made use of it. No one can doubt it 
who traces draperies. The thousand little folds so per- 
fectly adjusted, with those who have used the gauze, 
are entirely overlooked by those who are ignorant of it. 

The contractions of the fold can be learned only with 
the traced proof. None, save artists who have traced, 
have solved those problems of perspective, the obscurity 
of which seems only increased by demonstration, but 
which eye-memory enlightens almost unconsciously. 

Nevertheless, art could never have fallen into the 
decadence we deplore, had not the means of acquiring 
readily the talent of execution been neglected and lost. 
For, at eighteen, Raphael was already a great artist, and 
he died at only thirty-two, leaving so many wonderful 
masterpieces. 

Never could I believe that men are more stupid at 
one epoch than at another. Their intellect changes the 


EXPRESSION. 123 


object of pursuit, that is all. Sometimes they excel in 
art, sometimes in science, sometimes in manufactures, It 
is likely that at the time of the revival of art, all means of 
arriving at truth in drawing had been exhausted. Cor- 
rectness of form did not satisfy ; the artist sought expres- 
sion to give it life. This was the zenith of art. But soon 
expression was exaggerated, and it usurped the place of 
truth. Then came the decline. The history of Greek 
art presents the same phenomenon. When truth ceased 
to be valued it was despised; tracing was forgotten. 
Poetry, no doubt, still lingered, but science, and the 
ability to execute, were gone. 

Not forever, thank God! They must return, and 
have returned to France, in the wake of daguerreotyping. 
Yes, a savant suddenly appears, and terrifies artists by 
saying to them, “ You know nothing!” The public 
is astounded at the news that human ingenuity has sur- 
passed itself by means of an invention, easily reproducing 
objects by the action of light upon a metallic surface. 
But gradually terror and enthusiasm calmed down on 
both sides, and without ceasing to admire the pictures 
produced by the daguerreotype, they exclaimed, “ It is 
nature without life.” And in truth an inanimate ma- 
chine cannot impart what it does not possess: soul, ex- 
pression, poetry. Man, however grossly and imperfectly 
he may create, will always be superior to mechanism , 


124 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


he enters into his creation and animates it with the sacred 
fire God has kindled within him. This is true not only 
in drawing and painting, but also in sculpture. A ma- 
chine has been invented for sculpturing marble, which 
exactly copies the model. It has been dispensed with, 
because its productions were only mechanical. The 
same is true even of the works which civilized nations 
now require only at the loom. Look at the cashmeres of 
India, so superior to those of France, although the 
tissue may be often far less perfect. It has the unex- 
pected caprices of a living being. 

Everywhere is seen the artist who invents, who seeks 
to please, and whose success is doubly gratifying, because 
he has conquered a difficulty and created something beau- 
tiful. The machine, whose work is so exact, so regular, 
so perfect mechanically, is far from causing the same 
emotion; it is the monotonous parrot which forever 
repeats the same words without understanding them. 

It is thus with the daguerreotype, invariable always 
—yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow. Everywhere the 
same truth of design and perspective, the same correct- 
ness—nothing is forgotten; itis perfection. And yet you 
remain like ice before such masterpieces! Wherefore ? 
Because the genius of man is wanting, and there is a 
voice which obstinately demands it; because exterior 


forms do not satisfy us, and we can be moved only by 


EXPRESSION. 12é 


that internal something which emanates from the canvass 
or the marble and reaches our intellect and our heart. 
Who shall impart this something to the canvass or the 
marble, if not the artist ? 

But how shall one be a machine and a human being 
at the same time; that is, how shall one succeed, like the 
daguerreotype, in attaining truth naturally, at the same 
time preserving his freedom and force to give expression 
and poetry to his work? 

I have discovered the great secret, my dear Julia, or 
rather I have rediscovered it, by reviving the art of 
tracing and converting it into an instructor. I do not 
boast of it, for nothing can be more simple. The idea 
is, besides, the offspring of the daguerreotype, and if it 
had sot occurred to me it would have occurred to another. 

The pupil begins by making herself a machine in 
executing her copy. There is her proof from which 
she cannot deviate, and perforce she arrives at truth. 
When found, it is reproduced from her memory, and, 
quickly freed from the preoccupations of mechanical 
execution, she can express her emotions and transfer her 
idea to her work. 

Is it not wonderful, dear friend, how humanity re- 
volves always in the same circle? Inventions, progress, 
revolutions all return at certain epochs to our earth, like 
those stars which reappear in the firmament after having 


126 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


disappeared for ages. Science and art arise, advance, 
decline, and are forgotten in the wake of some great 
catastrophe, then spring up anew, only to improve, de- 
cline, and be forgotten again. 

As the generations of man are numbered, so human- 
ity counts its civilizations. At the dawn of each, when 
the night of barbarism is dissipated, art timidly revives, 
availing itself of the simplest means for attaining its 
object. 


Egyptian and Grecian art astonish us always by 
the purity of their lines and the correctness of their 
movements, and Gothic art by its admirable simplicity, 
—qualities which are obtained only by a skilful use of 
tracing. At the birth of every school you find a style, 
that is to say, a truth. 

When I mentioned the necessity of never allowing 
the pupil to shade any design whatever, without at the 
same time copying the background which is behind it, it 
was because I do not wish her to be one moment ex- 
empted from seeking the truth. It is highly important 
she should at once be familiarised with all the conditions 
of a picture. Thus, when she has copied a foot from a 
cast, or from nature, one would think it an imitation 
from the picture of some master; it almost seems to walk. 

And it seems to walk because it has a footing. There 
is space between it and the background. 


EXPRESSION. 142i 


This is owing to the fact that the relations of tone 
have been well studied. 

To find the harmony and the differences of vigor and 
light between the object you draw and what is behind 
this object, is the whole science. 

‘Thus a studio cannot be too highly ornamented. 
Modern artists who aspire to become colorists, surround 
themselves with works of art, beautiful fabrics, rare 
pieces of furniture. None but the studios of pupils are 
bare, decorated with an eternal green or chocolate back- 
ground. Thus, what is beheld in the first portraits which 
emanate from their hands? The green or chocolate 
background which for so many years they have had be- 
fore their eyes. 

Is that the way to teach them the value of colors, a 
thing so necessary ? 

In my studio, which is ornamented, the lay figure is 
always dressed in beautiful costumes, and the pupils are 
required to render in black the value of each color. 
Thus engravings could be made from their studies, so 
well are the white, green, red, and black understood. 

That is undoubtedly much more difficult than to 
glue a figure upon a chocolate background; it is also 
more instructive. Better ‘still, it is truly the science 
of coloring and drawing, which are inseparable one from 


another. 


128 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER, 


But I must stop, not because I have exhausted 
this science, but in order that what remains to be said 
may be understood; the mind must be prepared by the 
practice of my lessons. . 

I have nothing more to say at present, except to 
recommend perseverance in the work you have un- 


dertaken. 
M. E. O. 


LETTER FROM M. ROVILLET. 
METHOD OF ENLARGING. 


My dear Julia, you wished to know M. Rouillet’s 
method for enlarging drawings. I can explain it no 
better than he. Here is the letter he was so kind as to 
address to me: 


MapamE :— 

You express a desire to know my process of enlarg- 
ing a drawing. I hasten to give it to you ina few 
words. 

To enlarge a drawing, it is necessary to trace it upon 
a glass or upon gummed gauze, with lithographic ink 
Then take a small lamp, with flat wick, which can be 
raised or lowered at will, Cut the wick slantingly so 
as to make it very pointed. When it is lighted lower it | 
until it forms only a small luminous point. 

This operation I am describing can take place only 
in a dark room. 

The lamp is placed before the drawing traced upon 
the glass or upon the gummed gauze, so that the lumin- 
ous point shall be in the centre of the image; then the 
design is reflected upon the canvass or paper, which 
has previously been fastened upon the wall or upon an 
easel, As the lamp is placed nearer or further from the 
gauze, the reflection is increased more or less. 


6* 


130 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


If you wish to obtain large dimensions, the tracing 
must be divided into four, six, or eight parts. The 
canvass or paper must be divided in the same manner, 
and the reproduction is made in portions, always placing 
the light in the centre of each. Thus the portion of the 
drawing contained in each little square of tracing is 
transferred to the larger corresponding square upon the 
canvass or paper. | 

It is scarcely necessary to add that whether the en- 
tire drawing is produced at once or in portions, it is ne- 
cessary to delineate with firm hand the drawing which 
is projected by the light upon the canvass or paper. 

I trust, Madame, you will be present at some lectures 
which I intend giving at M. Aubert’s; it will afford me 
sincere pleasure to make you acquainted with the im- 
provements which I have made in my method. 

Receive, etc., 
A. ROUILLET. 


NOMENCLATURE OF ARTICLES 


INDISPENSABLE TO MADAME CAVE’S METHOD. 


FIRST LESSONS. 


The Cavé Method, entitled, ‘“‘ Drawing without a 
Master.” 

First Series, Outline Models ; heads, hands, feet, etc., 

A board. 

Six paper tacks, carpet tacks or wafers. 

Transparent paper. 

White paper. 

Charcoal. 

Lead pencils. 

Old gloves. 


SECOND AND THIRD LESSONS. 


Second and third series. Models from the Masters for 
learning to draw from the cast and entire figures. 
A gauze with stand. 


A wooden cross, 


132 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


FOURTH LESSONS. 


First series shaded. Models from the Masters for 
learning to shade with the charcoal and crayon. 


FIFTH LESSONS. 


The Cavé Method, entitled “ Coloring without a master.” 

Second shaded series; for learning to shade finely 
(from the Masters) with charcoal, to wash with sepia 
and to understand light and shade. 


SIXTH LESSONS. 


Third shaded serves from the Masters, for learning 
style and composition. 

These last two series answer also for studying 
coloring. 

Outline Industrial Series. Models of houses, vases, 
chariots, ete., for elementary schools and children from 
six to nine years of age. 


NOTES. 


(1) In order toexecute properly all herein mentioned, 
everything should be done according to the directions 
given, 

(2) If the pupil has no gauze, take transparent pa- 
per, and follow the directions contained in the 16th let- 
ter, relative to the traced proof. This is the mode most 
generally adopted. 

(3) To efface the charcoal take an old glove. Many 
pupils execute their drawings three times, first, corrected 
by the proof, secondly from memory, and the third time 
copied without the proof. It often happens that the 
three drawings coincide perfectly with the proof. 

(4) Exercises in capital letters have been recommen- 
ded to give the hand facility in sketching, 

(5) There are pupils who execute the smallest draw- 
ings in charcoal, with admirable delicacy; this aids their 
progress in shading with the charcoal. 

(6) Generally parents find it very easy to let their 
children spend five hours a day atthe piano while they 
are willing toallow only one hour to drawing. This is 
because music pupils are obliged to play their pieces 
themselves, while they make their drawings with the 


aid of their teacher. 


134 DRAWING WITHOUT A MASTER. 


(7) A flat wooden cross will be firmer at the back if 
adjusted from top to bottom. 

(8) It is well to mark upon the floor with chalk, in 
an exact manner, the position for the delineator, the mod- 
el and the gauze. 

(9) See the last two modelsof the third outline 
series, 

(10) Carpet tacks or wafers will answer as well. 

(11) It is well to procure the foot of Clodion which 
is traced and enlarged in the second series, in order te 
render one familiar with the perfection necessary in 
proofs taken from the cast, 


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